Friday's route and stages

The competitive action on Rally Ireland gets underway on Friday morning when crews leave the Service Park in Sligo from 0725hrs, at two minute intervals, and drive to the first Special Stage.

In the morning crews will tackle a loop of three consecutive stages, all based in the countryside to the east of Sligo, before returning to the Service Park for a 30 minute service.

In the afternoon, crews will repeat the morning loop, have another 30 minute service halt and then drive north east of Sligo to two further stages run in darkness.

Comprising seven stages, 478km of liaison sections and a competitive stage distance of 164km, Friday is easily the longest day of the rally.

Follow these links to see the Rally Ireland Timetable, Entry List and Maps. Stage and Split times will be beamed here live throughout Friday’s competition.

Jarmo Lehtinen, co-driver to Mikko Hirvonen at the BP Ford Abu Dhabi team, explained Friday’s stages to wrc.com:

SS1/SS4. Glenboy. 22.25km
“Stage one is unchanged from when we drove it in 2007 - except on that occasion we drove it on Friday afternoon. It’s the one where Henning went off. It’s going to be a big challenge right form the start. The road is really, REALLY, fast and narrow - maybe even too fast in places.”

SS2/SS5. Cavan. 15.09km
“Stage two is completely new this year - and one of only two new stages in the whole rally. The road is a little bit twistier than the previous stage but the surface is a lot bumpier, so we are airborne for a lot more on this one.”

SS3/SS6. Aughnasheelan. 25.19km
“Known as the Bencroy stage in 2007, this time the stage has been lengthened with a new 9km section at the end. It’s has a different character to the previous two, and goes uphill, high over a mountain and onto open moorland. From the start we climb from an altitude of 100 metres up to 400 metres by the 10km mark, and then back to 100 metres at the end. The road is very narrow and has lots of semi-broken tarmac. On Tuesday there was still some snow up there. So if it’s cold overnight we might have to look out on the morning pass.”

SS7. Murley. 24.70km
SS8. Fardross. 14.77km
“One of the most special parts of this event is Friday’s last two stages which are driven in complete darkness. Murley and Fardross are exactly the same stages we did on Sunday morning in 2007. These two are a long way from Friday’s other stages and the character of the roads is very different. On these two we’re in and out of forests, with long straights followed by combinations of sharp corners. The rhythm is changing all the time. Generally the roads are very narrow and you can cut quite a lot - which means there might be mud and dirt dragged out onto the road.”