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Rally under way
Ford's championship leader, Marcus Gronholm, took the early advantage in Rally Ireland yesterday, winning the opening floodlit super-special stage in Belfast. The Finn beat Citroen's title rival, Sebastian Loeb, by 0.9sec, clocking a time of 1min 30.8sec over the 1.82km stage in the grounds of the Northern Irish government building at Stormont. Local driver Kris Meeke was third quickest in a privately entered Subaru, 0.1sec behind Loeb. –Press reporters and agencies