Socialist challenger Francois Hollande has beaten Nicolas Sarkozy in the first round of France's presidential election, according to estimates compiled from ballot samples.
As expected, Mr Hollande and the wounded right-wing incumbent will now face off in the 6 May second-round.
However, the big surprise of the night was the record score for anti-immigrant, anti-EU flag-bearer Marine Le Pen.
Mr Hollande won between 28% and 29% of the vote in the first round, to Mr Sarkozy's 25.5% to 27%, and Ms Le Pen won a best-ever 18-20%.
"Firstly, I am tonight in the lead among the candidates," Mr Hollande declared before supporters in his rural political stronghold of Tulle.
"I am today the best placed candidate to become the next French president.
"The second major lesson to draw from this election - and this is undeniable - is that the first round was a punishment and a rejection of the incumbent," he said to cheers.
Mr Sarkozy sought to put a positive spin on the result and brandished his right-wing credentials in a clear nod to Ms Le Pen supporters, despite being the first incumbent to lose a first round-vote in modern French history.
"We can enter the second round with confidence and I now call on all French people who put patriotism above partisanship or any special interests to unite and join me," Mr Sarkozy told supporters at a rally in Paris.
Explaining his poor showing as the result of a first round "vote of crisis" amid global economic chaos, he insisted: "These anxieties, this suffering, I know them, I understand them."
"They are about respecting our borders, the determined fight against job relocation, controlling immigration, putting value on work, on security," he said, hitting on a number of key right-wing themes.
Mr Sarkozy also called for three televised debates before the second round but Mr Hollande refused, saying the single planned encounter would be enough.
A jubilant Ms Le Pen addressed her supporters after her National Front party's best ever showing, saying: "The battle of France has just begun ... we have exploded the monopoly of the two parties" -- the Socialists and Sarkozy's UMP.
"Nothing will be as it was before ... the people of France have invited themselves to the table of the elite," she said at a remarkably triumphant rally for a candidate who went out at the first hurdle.
"I will give my opinion on May 1," Ms Le Pen said when asked how her supporters should vote in the second round.
The first opinion poll after the first round said that Mr Hollande would beat Mr Sarkozy by 54% to 46% in the second round and that the attitude of Ms Le Pen's supporters could be decisive.
