Donnelly trails McGarrity in Circuit of Ireland

In the Buy & Sell Circuit of Ireland Rally, Derek McGarrity and co-driver, Dermot O’Gorman (Subaru WRC) returned to the Enniskillen overnight halt with all of their morning lead intact.

Nevertheless, with seven stages tomorrow - totalling some 52 stage miles - Eugene Donnelly/Paul Kiely (Toyota Corolla WRC) are sill very much in contention – they trail the leaders by 24.6 seconds.

Donie O’Sullivan/Paul Nagle (Ford Focus WRC) are a solid third – almost a minute clear of Austin

MacHale/Brian Murphy, also in a Ford focus.

McGarrity strengthened his lead role on today’s opening stage but Donnelly pressed hard and kept the deficit under 30 seconds.

Tyre choice was a key element today and on the final stages in heavy rain, Donnelly cut the deficit to 17 seconds when he took advantage of his wet weather tyres.

However, McGarrity clawed back eight seconds on the last stage to stretch his lead to 24.6 seconds- 0.9 of a second more than the lead he took to the first stage this morning.

O’Sullivan and MacHale had a real battle for third and the pendulum swung in O’Sullivan’s favour towards the final stages where MacHale lost almost a minute.

Tyre choice also played a significant part in the Group N showroom category where Garry Jennings has a 24.6 second lead over Dessie Keenan.

1. D. McGarrity/D. O’Gorman (Subaru WRC) 1h. 52m.09.3s.

2. E. Donnelly/P. Kiely (Toyota Corolla WRC) 1h. 52m.33.9s.

3. D. O’Sullivan/P. Nagle (Ford Focus) 1h. 54m. 11,6s.

4. A. MacHale/B. Murphy (Ford Focus WRC) 1h. 55m.08.1s

5. D. Doherty/M. Doherty (Subaru WRC) 1h. 55m. 51.9s.

6. G. Jennings/P. Garry (Mitsubishi) 2h. 00m. 11.6s.

7. D. Keenan/E. Sherry (Mitsubishi) 2h. 00m. 36.2s.

8. A. MacHale/G. McMonagle (Mitsubishi) 2h. 02m.11.1s.

9. C. Rogers/S. McLaughlin (Mitsubishi) 2h. 06m. 19.2s

10. W. Fannin/M. Courtney (Subaru) 2h. 06m. 29.0s.