Intro:

Esapekka Lappi leads the opening day of the FIA European Rally Championship's circuit of Ireland.

Script:

Esapekka Lappi dominated the opening day of the FIA European Rally Championship's circuit of Ireland.

The Finland driver set the fastest times in the first seven stages of the County Down course in his Skoda Fabia.

That put him 18 seconds ahead of Ireland's Craig Breen who is racing in a Peugeot 208.

But don't write off the Championship leader just yet, he beat Lappi in the final three stages of the day to close the gap to 12.6 seconds.

For the first half of the day, Dutch Peugeot driver Kevin Abbring duelled with Breen for second place, but he was forced to retire with an overheating engine.

Instead there was another Irishman in third, Robert Barrable had a trouble free day in his Ford Fiesta, he'll be hoping for more of the same as the race moves to Lisburn on day two.