At the end of this evening’s opening leg of seven stages, Andrew Nesbitt/James O’Brien in a Subaru WRC have an 8.9 second lead over the Toyota Corolla WRC of Eugene Donnelly/Paul Kiely with Derek McGarrity/Derek O’Gorman (Subaru WRC) a minute and 4.8 seconds further back.

Nesbitt led initially only to be pegged back by Donnelly, who led through stages two and three.

Tyre choice again proved to be difficult in the changing conditions. Nesbitt regained the lead on S.S 4, albeit by 0.4 of a second.

On the closing stages, the Armagh driver, who is seeking three straight wins on the event, edged out his rival and will take the narrow advantage into tomorrow’s 16 stages.

McGarrity is best of the rest with Mark Higgins fourth in his Hyundai and one of the performances of the rally from No. 18 seed, Dougi Hall, who is fifth in his Ford Focus.

Ireland’s Austin MacHale – fastest through the third stage – is sixth overnight and Eamonn Boland (Mitsubishi) is two places further behind.

In Group N, Paul Wedgbury (Mitsubishi) leads Clonmel’s, Roy White (Mitsubishi) by some 23 seconds, Oldcastle’s, Rory Galligan (Mitsubishi) is fourth in the category.

1. A. Nesbitt/J. O’Brien (Subaru) 44m. 55.2s.

2. E. Donnelly/P. Kiely (Toyota Corolla) 45m. 04.1s.

3. D. McGarrity/D. O’Gorman (Subaru WRC) 46m. 08.9s.

4. D. Higgins/D. Barritt (Hyundai Accent WRC) 46m. 23.7s.

5. D. Hall/S. Egglestone (Ford Focus WRC) 46m. 28.1s.

6. A. MacHale/B. Murphy (Ford Focus WRC) 46. 57.9s.

7. J. Milner/N. Beech (Subaru WRC) 46m. 58.9s.

8. E. Boland/F. Regan (Mitsubishi) 47m. 18.0s.

9. P. Bird/A. Bargery (ford Focus WRC) 47m. 44.6s.

10. M. Wilson/S. Martin (Ford Focus WRC) 47m. 56.5s.