{"id":508122,"date":"2026-06-19T15:33:12","date_gmt":"2026-06-19T15:33:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/508122\/"},"modified":"2026-06-19T15:33:12","modified_gmt":"2026-06-19T15:33:12","slug":"meeke-leads-devine-at-end-of-stage-3-2026-donegal-rally","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/508122\/","title":{"rendered":"Meeke leads Devine at end of Stage 3 – 2026 Donegal Rally"},"content":{"rendered":"

Kris Meeke has arrived in style at the Donegal International Rally, as he leads the way at the end of the first stage loop.<\/p>\n

The WRC veteran and his co-driver Liam Regan have dominated the first three stages of the event, with the Dungannon man making his first crack at the Donegal stages look like a breeze in his Mervyn Evans Motorsport-prepared Toyota Yaris R2.<\/p>\n

Conditions were greasy on the first stage of the day, Sleeghan, but Meeke charged to the top of the times by 4 seconds.<\/p>\n

He continued his form on a dry Sean Bhaile stage, finishing 2 seconds clear of the chasing pack to make it two stage wins from two.<\/p>\n

His time of a 7:26.2 on the third stage of the day, Doire U\u00ed Fhr\u00edl, was enough to give him a 6.5 second lead heading into the first service of the day in Bunbeg.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Callum Devine and Noel O\u2019Sullivan. Photo: Darren Mulhern<\/p>\n

Callum Devine has moved into second place overall as he aims to win his fourth Donegal International Rally in a row.<\/p>\n

Faced with a difficult task as the first car out on the road on a greasy morning, Devine sat third at the end of the first stage – but as the roads continued to dry he found his rhythm.<\/p>\n

On stage 2 he set the second-fastest time, and he was the winner of Stage 3 as he clocked a time of 7:24.9 in his Skoda Fabia R2.<\/p>\n

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Current M-Sport WRC driver Josh McErlean has impressed also, as he sits in third in the standings.<\/p>\n

Just a week away from the prospect of tackling one of the WRC’s most challenging gravel rallies – Rally Akropolis in Greece – the County Derry native has looked right at home in his Ford Fiesta R2, clocking top-three times in the day’s first three stages.<\/p>\n

McErlean and co-driver Eoin Tracy had been sitting in second following the first two stages of the day, before slipping back slightly on Stage 3.<\/p>\n

The Ford factory driver now lies 11.8 seconds off the top ahead of the day’s second loop.<\/p>\n

Eddie Doherty has jumped into fourth place in his Skoda Fabia R2, but has been distanced by the top 3.<\/p>\n

Doherty sits 29.2s back from Meeke’s leading time, but is less than two seconds ahead fifth-placed Philip Allen in his Toyota Yaris R2.<\/p>\n

Elsewhere, there was a dramatic moment for Mark Kelly on Stage 2, as he rolled his Skoda Fabia R2 on his first time through Sean Bhaile.<\/p>\n

Declan Boyle’s rally is also over, with his Skoda coming to a halt on the third stage.<\/p>\n

The afternoon action is set to get underway at 2:26pm, with drivers again tackling the Sleeghan, Sean Bhaile and Doire U\u00ed Fhr\u00edl stages.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Kris Meeke has arrived in style at the Donegal International Rally, as he leads the way at the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":508123,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[61,60,112],"class_list":["post-508122","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/508122","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=508122"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/508122\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/508123"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=508122"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=508122"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=508122"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}