One hand on the Title for Devine

The first four stages of this years Ulster International Rally had everything, Irish Tarmac Championship leader wanted a nice quiet clean run through the two days and ten stages to claim the title, Not a hope.. Within the first loop conditions began to change for the worse, Then drama for one of the championship challengers Meirion Evans, Crashing out on SS2 after issues with his wipers distracted him, Losing focus and going wide, Hitting a gate post. Game over.

Just 4.6 seconds seperated Devine and reigning champion Josh Moffett after stage two with Devine happy to get back to service without any issues, Attentions turned to SS3 repeating the loop but in very different conditions, Day turned to night and the conditions worsened, So much so drivers we looking for the stage to get canned for safety reasons, It did not and crews crawled through the stage by their usual standards with Ryan Loughran taking the fastes time, Adrien Fourmaux who is tackling the BRC set a time over 50s slower than his first run through the stage.

Devine and Moffett were seperated by just 0.8s after SS3 with Cathan McCourt leading the Irish contingent after his stunning run through SS1, Just 0.3s off Fourmaux.

With a slight improvement with conditions in SS4, Devine took over 19s out of Moffett and set the fastest time to sit second overall and leading Irish championship crew overnight.

Devine: "Happy to get through the day, Not risking anything"

After the horrendous conditions through day one, Devine should be pretty confident heading into day 2.