Irish duo move up to fourth in Monte Carlo Rally

Ireland's Kris Meeke (Dungannon) and Paul Nagle (Killarney) continue to make progress in the Monte Carlo Rally, the opening round of the Intercontinental Rally Challenge.

Originally seeded at number twelve, they began today's second leg of six stages in sixth place and ended the day in fourth position - 59.2 seconds behind the new rally leader, Frenchman, Sebastien Ogier (Peugeot 207 S2000).

After a relatively untroubled run through the morning's first stage (S.S. 4), Meeke/Nagle lost time when they experienced an off-road excursion onboard the Kronos prepared Peugeot UK 207 S2000 on special stage five.

A number of their rivals also stumbled on the same stage and remarkably, the Irish pair found themselves in second place - just over a minute behind overnight leader, Juho Hanninen in a Skoda Fabia S2000.

Kris said: "We hit the bank of the road on our left rear and the tyre ripped off, we dropped over a minute."

The sixth stage didn't bring the duo any great luck as their car punctured early in the stage; as a result, they lost two positions and slipped to fourth while Hanninen continued to lead ahead of French ace, Sebastien Ogier and Belgian, Freddy Loix.

Meanwhile, the defending IRC champion, Nicolas Vouilloz was forced to retire when he damaged the steering mechanism of his Peugeot following a crash.

On the trio of afternoon stages, there were a number of changes to the order.

Meeke retained his fourth place but Juho Hanninen lost significant time on the day's final stage and dropped to third.

Ogier took over at the top of the leaderboard.

Meeke is still very much in contention - 59.2 seconds behind.

Both Paul and Kris were full of praise for their gravel crew, David Patterson and Derek Brannigan, who were up in the early hours checking the stages.

As a result of their endeavours, it enabled them to select the right tyres.

Tomorrow's itinerary consists of four special stages, the rally concludes on Sunday.

1. S. Ogier/J Ingrasia (Peugeot 207 S2000) 2h. 35m. 09.8s.

2. F. Loix/I. Smeets (Peugeot 207 S2000) 2h. 35m. 42.2s.

3. J. Hanninen/M. Markkula (Skoda Fabia) 2h. 36m. 04.6s.

4. K. Meeke/P. Nagle (Peugeot 207 S2000) 2h. 36m. 09.0s.

5. T. Gardemeister/T. Tuominen (Abarth Grande Pinto S2000) 2h. 36m. 50.5s.

6. S. Sarrazin/ J Renucci (Peugeot 207 S2000) 2h. 38m. 52.4s.

7. J. Kopecky/P. Stary (Skoda Fabia S2000) 2h. 39m. 20.4s.