Wilks leads as Hanninen takes title

While the Skoda UK driver led, factory Skoda man Juho Hanninen became series champion automatically as the event got underway. The only person who could still beat Hanninen to the IRC title was his team-mate Jan Kopecky, and Skoda's decision not to enter the Czech driver in Scotland guaranteed that Hanninen would wrap up the championship - albeit in unusual circumstances.

A small excursion at the start of the first run through tonight's 3.37-kilometre asphalt stage delayed Hanninen this evening, so he will start tomorrow's forest tests in sixth place, 11.5 seconds off the lead.

Up front, Wilks and Meeke (Peugeot UK) have already resumed their 2009 Scotland battle. Wilks was fastest by 1.7s on the first run, and the pair then took a joint stage win when Scone Palace was repeated for SS2.

Andreas Mikkelsen is currently a promising third in the Hankook Ford, ahead of Meeke's Kronos Peugeot team-mate Thierry Neuville, and Proton's Alister McRae, who will be very keen to repeat his 2009 podium after the team's tough season. Just 0.3s covers Neuville, McRae and Hanninen at present.

While British champion Keith Cronin has made a cautious start in the second works Proton and is back in ninth, Tom Cave has got his satellite Satria into seventh.

Pos  Driver             Car         Time/Gap
 1.  Guy Wilks          Skoda        4m16.0s
 2.  Kris Meeke         Peugeot       + 1.7s
 3.  Andreas Mikkelsen  Ford          + 9.0s
 4.  Thierry Neuville   Peugeot      + 11.2s
 5.  Alister McRae      Proton       + 11.3s
 6.  Juho Hanninen      Skoda        + 11.5s
 7.  Tom Cave           Proton       + 18.0s
 8.  Jonathan Greer     Mitsubishi   + 19.6s
 9.  Keith Cronin       Proton       + 20.2s
10.  David Bogie        Mitsubishi   + 21.9s