2007 Rally of Ireland - Leg One

Leaderboard

01. Sebastien Loeb/Daniel Elena (F) Citroen C4 WRC 1:33:15,9 hrs.

02. Daniel Sordo/Marc Marti (E) Citroen C4 WRC +11,2 sec.

03. Jari-Matti Latvala/Mikka Antilla (Fin) Ford Focus RS WRC06 +1:28,4 min.

04. Mikko Hirvonen/Jarmo Lehtinen (Fin) Ford Focus RS WRC 07 +1:53,2 min.

05. Petter Solberg/Phil Mills (Nor) Subaru Impreza WRC +2:19,2 min.

06. Guy wilks/Phil Pugh (GB) Subaru Impreza WRC +4:13,6 min.

07. Manfred Stohl/Ilka Minor (A) Citroen Xsara WRC +4:41,9 min.

08. Matthew Wilson/Michael Orr (GB) Ford Focus RS WRC06 +6:45,4 min.

09. Tim McNulty/Eugene O'Donnell (IRL) Subaru Impreza S11 WRC +7:55,9 min.

10. Gareth MacHale/Alan Harryman (IRL) Ford Fous WRC +7:59,8 min.

1. BP-Ford

2. Citroen Total

3. Subaru

4. OMV Kronos Citroen

5. Stobart M-Sport Ford

6. Munchis Ford

7. CRT Skoda-Kopecky

1. BP-Ford

No information available at this time, please check site later.

Marcus Grönholm/Timo Rautiainen:

Mikko Hirvonen/Jarmo Lehtinen:

Khalid Al Qassimi/Nicky Beech:

2. Citroen Total

The first leg of the 15th and penultimate round of the 2007 World rally Championship ended this evening with the two Citroën Sport C4 WRCs in first and second positions. Sébastien Loeb/Daniel Elena are the overnight leaders, 11.2s ahead of their team-mates Dani Sordo/Marc Martí.

Sebastien Loeb/Daniel Elena: "We saw

there was problem with the damper and we wondered how much time we would lose," reported Seb. "I did my best to push hard where the going was flat and then spare the car over the numerous bumpy portions in the hope that the part would hold. And it did.

Then Marcus had his

problem. After that, SS5 marked the start of a completely different rally for us. We will need to stay concentrated now because the roads are very muddy and it could be so easy to get caught out. There are still two legs to come to try to defend our position."

Dani Sordo/Marc Marti: "I am

pleased with our performance today. Our Citroën C4 was competitive, we chose the right BFGoodrich tyres and our times were good. There are still two more days of this to come, but we will do all we can to hold our position."

3. Subaru

Leg one finished with the Subaru World Rally Team duo of Petter Solberg and Phil Mills lying fifth overall, but with team-mates Chris Atkinson and Xevi Pons both counting the cost of mistakes on the unforgiving Irish stages.

Petter Solberg/Phil Mills: "Today's stages have been difficult and tricky, but for me it's actually been quite okay. The car feels okay, and from fifth place overall, anything is still possible over the next two days. Today I've driven at a steady pace, I've taken no risks, and instead I'm keeping a pace I feel comfortable with. Tomorrow's stages are a different kind of challenge and I'm looking forward to them."

Chris Atkinson/Stephane Prevot: "We've faced some incredible stage conditions out there today and were pushing quite hard this morning. Things were going well until SS4 when I got distracted by a split-time coming into the car. I looked down, missed my braking marker and went off. It's very disappointing. From that point on the focus switched to testing, looking ahead to Monte Carlo next year and working our way through some set-up options. Tomorrow we'll continue that work, not running at a maximum attack but hopefully taking something valuable from the rally."

Xavier Pons/Xavier Amigo: "My car left the road on SS4, on a right hand corner about 5km from the start. It was a wide piece of road, not particularly bumpy or muddy, but we had too much speed and the car under-steered straight on and hit a bank. I got going again, but the oil-cooler had been damaged in the impact and after a couple of kilometres the oil warning lit up on the dashboard and I had to stop. There was a little fire in the engine bay, which we quickly extinguished, and that was it - we could go no further. It's a big shame because this is a very special rally, with completely different stages, and I wanted to get more experience here."

4. OMV Kronos Citroen

The OMV Kronos Citroen World Rally Team has successfully weathered one of the most difficult days of this year's FIA World Rally Championship. After ten of 20 special stages the OMV pair Stohl/Minor lies in excellent seventh overall place and thus safely within scoring ranks. At the top it seems as if a preliminary decision in the World Championship has taken place.

Following the retirement of Marcus Grönholm (Fin/Ford Focus WRC) title holder Sebastien Loeb (F/Citroen C4 WRC) once more holds all the aces.

Manfred Stohl/Ilka Minor: "I seldom was that happy to have survived the first day. I had expected Ireland to be leprechaunish but this surpasses everything. We are currently in seventh place but do stand good chances to move up to sixth place. Still, this rally is highly dangerous. If it should rain harder tomorrow everything could be turned upside down."

5. Stobart M-Sport Ford

For the second event in a row Jari-Matti Latvala/Miikka Anttila have finished day 1 in a podium position as they occupy third at this weekend's Rally Ireland. Stobart VK M-Sport Ford team-mates Matthew Wilson/Michael Orr have kept things consistent to finish the leg in the points in eighth overall.

Henning Solberg/Göran Bergsten began the day showing an incredible improvement on tarmac to be in sixth after seven stages. Disastrously however, on the following 22.25 kilometre Glenboy test, the Norwegian put his Stobart Ford Focus RS WRC06 off the road retiring from the leg.

Henning Solberg/Goran Bergsten: "I am really disappointed with how today ended up for us, we were going really well up until that stage and the feeling was very good. I clipped a rock on the apex of a corner which bounced the car back over the road and down a bank. My tarmac experience is limited and the muddy conditions make it even worse for me here. This is another new rally for me and learning the conditions is very important so hopefully we can re-start tomorrow and gain more experience of this event."

Jari-Matti Latvala/Miikka Anttila: "It's fantastic for me to be in third position, today was a challenge but that is what rallying is all about. I am really satisfied with my position and my performance today. I had a feeling this morning that it was going to be a long day and it certainly was. The car and tyres have both worked extremely well in really bad conditions; I have never seen a tarmac rally like this before. Sometimes it feels like half the road is missing with the amount of mud on it. We will still concentrate for tomorrow as Mikko is quite close behind. If he tries to chase I will let him as it is more important for me to finish this event and get the maximum experience out of it."

Matthew Wilson/Michael Orr: "Today has been reasonably good for us and we are happy to be in the points at the end of the first day on this difficult event in which experience counts a lot. We haven't had any problems except for a half-spin on the last stage and a big overshoot on stage eight where we had to reverse and lost about 15-20 seconds. I have never experienced anything like this in my life, the conditions are treacherous in places and not like any other Irish rally I have done before. You have to keep altering your pace as the surface changes which makes concentrating very difficult but a least for tomorrow we will know what to expect of the conditions, unlike today."

6. Munchis Ford

The Munchi's team are not competing on this event.

7. CRT Skoda-Kopecky

Jan Kopecky is not competing in Ireland, his final event of the 2007 season will be Rally of Great Britain.

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Event statistics

The 2007 Rally Ireland in brief.

* This is Rally Ireland's first inclusion in the calendar of the World Rally Championship.

* The rally takes place in the northwest of Ireland. The host town is Sligo where all the main facilities are based. Event HQ is based in the Clarion Hotel, while the service park and Media Room are based on the campus of the nearby Technology Institute. Sligo is 207km from Dublin, the Republic of Ireland's capital. Sligo Airport is 8km from the town centre.

* The time difference between Ireland and CET is one hour. When it is 8am in Paris, it is 7am in Dublin. The local currency is the Euro.

* The total length of the 2007 event is 1,196.25km, including 342.34km divided into 20 stages (14 different).

* Tyres - the quota per driver is 70 tyres, of which 47 may be used (event + shakedown). Barcode lists and the pattern choices had to be nominated by Friday November 9.

* Recce is scheduled for Tuesday November 13 (between 08.00 and 18.00 - SS8, SS9, SS10, SS2/5, SS3/6, SS4/7 and SS20) and Wednesday November 14 (between 08.00 and 17.00 - SS19, SS11/14, SS12/15, SS13/16, SS17 and SS18). Two passes are authorised at a top speed of 70kph, and in an order and at specific times dictated by the organisers. Recce for the Stormont super-special takes place on Thursday November 15, between 16.00 and 17.30.

* Shakedown takes place on Thursday November 15, between 07.00 and 10.00.

The length of the

test stage, which starts 5.97km to the east of the service park near the village of Formoyle, is 2.87km.

* A super-special will be run at Stormont, Belfast, on Thursday evening near Northern Ireland's parliament building. The start ceremony begins at 18.50.

* Leg 1 (Thursday November 15 and Friday November 16): 386.10km, including 168.07km divided into 10 stages (7 different). Thursday: Start ceremony, Belfast (from 18.50). SS1 (Stormont Superspecial, 1.82km). Friday: Exit service park at 07.25. SS2 (Geevagh 1, 11.48km), SS3 (Arigna 1,

27.90km) and SS4 (Lough Gill 1, 20.57km). Regroup (09.59, 20 minutes).

Service A (10.19, 30

minutes). SS5 (Geevagh 2), SS6 (Arigna 2) and SS7 (Lough Gill 2). Regroup (13.23, 20 minutes).

Service B (13.43, 30 minutes). SS8 (Glenboy, 22.25km), SS9 (Bencroy,

15.44km) and SS10

(Drumshando, 8.66km). Service C (17.49, 45 minutes). Last car due into parc ferme at 21.30.

* Leg 2 (Saturday November 17): 505.38km, including 118.36km divided into 6 stages (3 different).

Exit parc ferme for Service D (06.30, 10 minutes). SS11 (Sloughan Glen 1, 27.76km), SS12 (Ballinamallard 1, 17.96km) and SS13 (Tempo 1, 13.46km). Regroup (11.41, 20 minutes). Service E (12.01, 30 minutes). SS14 (Sloughan Glen 2), SS15 (Ballinamallard 2) and

SS16 (Tempo 2). Service

F (17.32, 45 minutes). Last car due into parc ferme at 21.30.

* Leg 3 (Sunday November 18): 304.77km, including 55.91km divided into 4 stages (4 different). Exit parc ferme for Service G (07.00, 10 minutes). SS17 (Murley, 24.70km), SS18 (Fardross, 14.77km),

SS19 (Donegal Bay, 14.06km) and SS20 (Mullaghmore, 2.38km).

* An unofficial podium ceremony (15 minutes) will be held at the end of the final stage for live broadcast on TV. The official podium ceremony will take place in front of the Clarion Hotel from 14.18.

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Event Schedule

Saturday 17 November: Leg 2 Sligo - Sligo

Serv D Sligo (10 mins) 06.30

SS11 Sloughan Glen 1 27.76km 08.13

SS12 Ballinamallard 1 17.96km 09.08

SS13 Tempo 1 13.46km 09.51

Serv E Sligo (30 mins) 12.01

SS14 Sloughan Glen 2 27.76km 14.04

SS15 Ballinamallard 2 17.96km 14.59

SS16 Tempo 2 13.46km 15.42

Serv F Sligo (45 mins) 17.32

Finish Sligo 18.17

Total 118.36km

Sunday 18 November: Leg 3 Sligo - Sligo

Serv G Sligo (10 mins) 07.00

SS17 Murley 24.70km 09.03

SS18 Fardross 14.77km 09.51

SS19 Donegal Bay 14.06km 11.39

SS20 Mullaghmore 2.38km 13.08

Finish Sligo 14.18