Eamonn Boland is top Irishman in ninth, with Aaron MacHale tenth - brother Gareth was forced out overnight - while the Group N battle sees Shaun Gallagher leading Alan Ring by 15 seconds.
Citroen Junior Team driver Chris Atkinson moved up to fourth place on Sunday’s opening stage - a pretty good recovery for the man who crashed on Friday, snapping a telegraph pole in half with his C4 WRC.
On a damp - but rain
free - Geevagh stage, Atkinson was 6.2sec quicker than Stobart VK
M-Sport driver Henning Solberg, to move ahead of him by 1.5sec. Like
the majority of WRC drivers, Atkinson had chosen Pirelli’s winter tyre
- even though the road conditions were drying.
“Yeah it’s okay
- we did what we had to,” said Chris. “Lucky it doesn’t look like
Henning had a good run - we were slow to begin with in case there was
ice around, but it was alright.”
Henning Solberg was more
concerned with completing the event than trying to get the place back.
“It was okay but I took it slowly - I’m driving at my own speed. I just
want to finish and get the points,” he said.
Stage winner Mikko
Hirvonen was the only leading driver to have opted for Pirelli’s Sotto
Zero asphalt tyre for the opening loop of stages. He narrowed the gap
to Dani Sordo by 1.4sec, but remained 1min 20sec adrift. “It’s okay but
it’s not enough to catch them,” said Hirvonen. “For me the asphalt tyre
was the right choice. If I was really pushing, and keeping the heat in,
I could have been faster but it’s okay.”
Sebastien Loeb was
second fastest, and happy with the performance of his winter tyres.
“It’s not the fastest choice but I think it’s the safest choice - and
that’s why I did it,” he explained. “If I was in Mikko’s position I
would be on the slick, but the winter tyre is what I’m used to here, so
it’s what I’ll continue with. It feels too soft - for the first time I
felt it moving a bit, but it was okay.”
After setting the third
fastest time Dani Sordo agreed with his team-mate. “We’re on the winter
tyre only for safety, but on this stage it wasn’t bad. There was quite
a bit of gravel about - so it’s very good,” he said.
Stobart
Ford team driver Matthew Wilson set the seventh fastest time and closed
the gap on sixth placed Sebastien Ogier from 37.9sec to 24.5sec. “Yeah,
it was okay,” said the Brit. “It was really slippery though - maybe
there was a bit of frost. I’m sure he’ll respond now - we’ll see.”
Credit: www.wrc.com