Donegal driver Shaun Gallagher finished fifth in the Rally Finland in the Junior World Rally Championship on Sunday.
The result leaves the Donegal man with 20 championship point and two more rallies left in the World Championship he is placed Third overall.
Following 24 stages of the most demanding loose gravel in the world, the Irish pairing of Shaun Gallagher and Paul Kiely finish 31st overall in Finland.
At the end of the rally, Shaun Gallagher said; 'This has been the toughest event I ever faced in my life. We were cutting tires to get extra grip and the harder we pushed the faster the pace seemed to get all over the board.
'I would have liked to finish higher up the leader board but we are still well placed in the Championship. We have Rally Germany in two weeks so I need to get focused on tarmac rallying and get myself ready.'
The Irish team suffered a sustainable crack in the housing of their gear box in their Citroën C2 Super 1600 and lost an additional 4 minutes with an off in day two of Rally Finland.
Frenchman and Championship leader Sebastian Ogier dropped Finland from his J-WRC calendar and will be confident heading into Germany of a victory. Meanwhile Michal Kosciuszko of Poland is 2 point ahead of Gallagher with 22 point and second place in the J-WRC.
Tommy Mullen, Chief Executive Officer of World Rally Team Ireland commented; 'The rally is finished and the team needs to regroup and examine all factors to see where we can make up time to push ourselves up the championship.
'When you compete at this level if you are not performing at your highest level you will be left behind.'
