Irish crew sixth in Monte Carlo Rally

The Irish crew of Kris Meeke and Paul Nagle, on board their Kronos run Peugeot 207 S2000, lie sixth at the end of the first day's action on the Monte Carlo Rally.

The 77th running of this famous event is the opening round of the 2009 Intercontinental Rally Challenge (IRC).

The Dungannon driver and his Killarney co-driver, were seeded at twelve and after the first stage this morning, were in seventh spot.

They opted to run tyres that were more beneficial on the second and third stages of the first leg.

Defending IRC champion, Frenchman, Nicolas Vouilloz (Peugeot 207 S2000) was quickest on the opening test but had to yield to Juho Hanninen (Skoda Fabia S2000) on the next test.

Meeke/Nagle, who were a trifle too cautious on the second test, showed tremendous pace on the snow covered third and final stage - St Jean en Royans.

They punched in the fastest time and duly moved up the leaderboard to sixth.

Hanninen retained the lead - and is a minute and 1.3 seconds ahead of Meeke.

Former F1 racer, Stephane Sarrazin (Peugeot 207 S2000) is in second place - 11.9 seconds off the pace.

Tomorrow's second leg features a loop of three stages repeated twice.

1. J. Hanninen/M. Markkula (Skoda Fabia S2000) 56m. 32.8s.

2. S. Sarrazin/J. Renucci (Peugeot 207 S2000) 56m. 44.7s.

3. N. Vouilloz/N. Klinger (Peugeot 207 S2000) 57m. 06.7s.

4. S. Ogier/J. Ingrassia (Peugeot 207 S2000) 57m. 22.1.

5. F. Loix/I. Smets (Peugeot 207 S2000) 57m. 27.4s.

6. K. Meeke/P. Nagle (Peugeot 207 S2000) 57m. 34.1s.