World Rally Championship: Jon Armstrong hits trouble at Rally Portugal

Jon Armstrong fell to fourth place after his car suffered a puncture

Northern Irish drivers Jon Armstrong and William Creighton showed impressive pace but suffered from issues on the opening day of Rally Portugal.

Armstrong built up a 36.7 second lead in the Junior WRC class but picked up a puncture on stage six and fell to fourth.

Creighton was running as high as second but a broken driveshaft forced him to pull out on stage five.

Ott Tanak leads the rally for Hyundai ahead of Elfyn Evans and Dani Sordo.

Former European Rally Champion Chris Ingram sits an impressive third in WRC3, the third tier of the World Rally Championship for privateer R5 cars, after a strong day in a Skoda.

Ex-Chelsea and Tottenham manager Andre Villas-Boas lies 15th on his WRC3 debut at his home event.

Northern Ireland's Josh McErlean is 10th in his first WRC3 appearance of the season for Hyundai after suffering two punctures on the rocky gravel roads.

Armstrong, who won the Junior WRC opener in Croatia, also felt the effects of a punctured tyre which saw him drop four minutes and halt a stunning run of five fastest stage times.

Creighton, on his second start in the championship, was running second behind Armstrong in a Northern Irish 1-2 however a broken driveshaft forced the 23-year-old to park up for the day.

NI's co-drivers fared better, with Chris Patterson guiding Gus Greensmith to a strong seventh overall in the main WRC class with Aaron Johnston and Oliver Solberg fourth in WRC2 for Hyundai.