UNOFFICIAL INTERNATIONAL L/BOARD AFTER STAGE 6
1st (1) Andreas Mikkelsen/Ola Floene (Fabia S2000) 48.46.5
2nd (3) Juho Hanninen/Mikko Markkula (Fabia S2000) 48.47.1
3rd (2) Jan Kopecky/Pavel Dresler (Fabia S2000) 49.26.8
4th (9) Mathieu Arzeno/Renoul Jamoul (207 S2000) 50.24.2
5th (7) Robert Barrable/Damien Connolly (Fabia S2000) 50.54.1
6th (4) Craig Breen/Gareth Roberts (207 S2000) 51.44.5
7th (6) Sepp Wiegand/Timo Gottschalk (Fabia S2000) 51.53.2
8th (8) Garry Jennings/Barry McNulty (Lancer N) 52.34.5
9th (17) Sam Moffett/James O'Reilly (Lancer N) 52.44.4
10th (22) Mark Donnelly/Andrew Purcell (Lancer N) 53.03.4
Andreas Mikkelsen set fastest time through today’s opening stage, Redrock, to move back into the lead of this Donnelly Group Circuit of Ireland Rally. Juho Hanninen led overnight and he said at the finish of the difficult 25km Redrock stage that he was too careful on the muddy sections in the middle of the stage, felt he did not push hard enough. Mikkelsen reported two or three big moments in the stage and thought his Skoda had a puncture. Perhaps that had something to do with the fact that he finished the stage with a rear wheel damaged, two spokes broken.
A major story from that opening stage today is that Alastair Fisher/Rory Kennedy have crashed their Fiesta just before junction 2 on a square right corner. It wasn’t a big accident but the front suspension is damaged and they cannot continue. This moves Arzeno up to 4th and Robert Barrable into 5th, highest placed Irish crew. Barrable did have a major moment in the stage when his Skoda sailed into a farmyard and he stalled the car getting turned.
Garry Jennings continues to lead group N although he is struggling somewhat having burned his gear change hand when he grabbed something hot in the engine department of his Lancer. Sam Moffett holds 2nd in GpN despite having to turn the anti lag on his Lancer down to setting 2 to prevent overheating problems. Mark Donnelly survived a few dramas in stage 6 to move ahead of Donagh Kelly who is having intercom problems with his Lancer. Marty McCormack is still best two wheel drive in his DS3 but overshot a square right junction this morning, possibly caused by a problem with the gear change. Josh Moffett is holding 13th o/a and still setting good times but had a couple of overshoots this morning in tricky places. Chris Ingram was 2nd in his class overnight in his Twingo but got caught out under braking for a square left and lost a minute when he went off the road. Kevin O’Connor led that Class 6 overnight in his Citroen C2R2 with David Carney 3rd.
More news later: BRIAN & LIZ PATTERSON & MICHAEL www.rallynews.net Follow Twitter @Pacenotes Facebook @Real_RallyNews
