Waterford's Craig Breen retained his Circuit of Ireland title on Saturday with co-driver Scott Martin - in their Citroen DS3 R5.
They finished 10.6 seconds ahead of the Fiesta R5 of Polish driver Kato Kajetanowicz.
The Ulster pair of Alastair Fisher/Gordon Noble, also in a Fiesta, were 45.8 seconds further behind in third - in what was he second round of the European Rally Championship.
Breen, who achieved a childhood dream by winning the rally for the first time last year, said: "I have to thank everybody for making this possible. I felt it slipping from my grasp today, we really had to dig deep."
As in 2015, Kajetanowicz had to make do with second place behind Breen on the asphalt roads of Northern Ireland, but moves into the ERC standings lead in the absence of Alexey Lukyanuk. The Russian won the season-opening Rally Islas Canarias El Corte Inglés but was forced to miss the Circuit of Ireland because of a crash in pre-event testing.
Alastair Fisher made up for the disappointment of retirements on his last two Circuit of Ireland starts by completing the podium on an event his uncle Bertie won three times. With a quick and consistent performance, the Ford Fiesta R5 driver held third place after all but the second stage of the rally.
Jaromír Tarabus was poised to begin his 2016 ERC campaign with a top-five finish, and was within five seconds of fourth-placed Josh Moffett going onto the final stage, but the ŠKODA Fabia R5 driver slid into a ditch on the last test. Others to lose strong positions on the second leg were Martin McCormack, who was fourth in his Super 2000-specification Fabia before a fuel pump failed, and Fredrik Åhlin, who shone on his first asphalt rally since 2012 until he broke his Fiesta R5’s steering.
Jonny Greer made the most of his local knowledge to stay out of trouble and finish fifth in his Citroën, a year after a fire robbed him of sixth place at the end of the final stage. David Bogie had a nightmare start to the event when a crash in Free Practice ruled him out of the qualifying stage, but he recovered well to finish sixth in his Fabia R5.
Tom Cave had to put up with a gearbox problem for much of leg two but took eighth behind fellow Fiesta R5 driver Stephen Wright, while Joseph McGonigle got his Fabia S2000 home ninth in spite of back pain incurred in a heavy landing on a jump. As in the Canary Islands, Jarosław Kołtun produced a largely trouble-free run to make the top 10, benefitting when Robert Woodside crashed his similar Fiesta R5 on SS11.
After a mechanical problem stopped him when leading early in the event, Elfyn Evans restarted for leg two and set four fastest times from five stages before hitting a wall on SS12 in his Fiesta R5.
And @Craig_Breen & @scottmartinat have done it! They retain their crown. Incredible competition this weekend. pic.twitter.com/9D5Myo4rB7
— Circuit of Ireland (@CircuitIreland) April 9, 2016
