Meeke and Nagle seventh in Spain
Ireland's Kris Meeke/Paul Nagle lie in seventh place at the end of the first leg of Rally Principe de Asturias in Spain, the ninth round of the Intercontinental Rally Challenge.
A puncture on the day's fourth stage - the longest of the raly - cost them over three minutes and their Peugeot UK-backed Peugeot 207 S2000 dropped down to eleventh in general classification.
Works Abarth driver, Giandomenico Basso leads overnight - 8.2 seconds ahead of the Skoda Fabia S2000 of local hero Alberto Hevia, who had mechanical difficulties towards the conclusion of today's nine stages.
Prior to the puncture, Meeke was only 4.7 seconds behind his principal championship rival, Jan Kopecky (Skoda).
On the afternoon stages, Meeke/Nagle, who lead the IRC series, set a string of quick times and moved up four places on the leaderboard.
Another of their championship rivals, Freddy Loix (Peugeot) also punctured and lost two minutes, the Belgian ended the day one place in front of the Irish duo, the margin between them stands at 6.4 seconds.
Meanwhile, Czech ace Jan Kopecky, is third overnight.
Briton, Guy Wilks (Proton) suffered a transmission problem at the start of SS9 and also punctured on the stage, he's ninth overnight.
Defending IRC champion Nicolas Vouilloz (Peugeot) was another driver to lose time with a puncture.
The rally concludes tomorrow with six stages.
1. G. Basso (Abarth) 1h. 40m. 15.9s.
2. A. Hevia (Skoda) +8.2s.
3. J. Kopecky (Skoda) +10.4s.
4. C. Fontana (Peugeot) +2m. 15.3s.
5. N. Vouilloz (Peugeot) +2m. 27.3s.
6 F. Loix (Peugeot) +2m. 50.0ss
7. K. Meeke/P. Nagle (Peugeot) +3m. 2.9s.
