It could be argued that Kris Meeke had a better
start number on Friday than WRC series leader Sebastien Ogier who had to run
first on the road doing the sweeping, but what is indisputable is that Kris
made the most of it.
Leaders from the second stage to the end, Kris and Paul Nagle produced a
masterful performance at Rally de Portugal to claim their second World
Championship win. This win, Citroën’s 95th victory in the WRC, was just rewards
for the hard work of the Abu Dhabi Total WRT at its first gravel rally of the
season. Having rejoined this morning under Rally2 regulations, Stéphane
Lefebvre/Gabin Moreau and Khalid Al Qassimi/Chris Patterson made it to the
final podium.
At the finish Kris said: “First and foremost, I
must thank the entire team and PH Sport for the work done this weekend. We have
secured this win against top-level competition so the performance is especially
important for me as a driver. Before the start, I wasn’t really sure what to
expect. Although I’ve done a lot of testing over the last few weeks, I was
clearly short of competitive mileage. But I managed to drive quickly and led
pretty much from start to finish, managing my lead from Saturday afternoon
onwards.”
After set-up changes to
his Volkswagen Polo R Andreas Mikkelsen grabbed second from team-mate and
championship leader Sébastien Ogier who suffered two punctures today. With just
one spare wheel in his Polo R, he compromised his pace to ensure he completed
the final Power Stage and reach the Matosinhos finish after topping up one of
the flat tyres with air.
Dani Sordo finished fourth after his hopes of a podium ended yesterday due to stability issues with the rear of his Hyundai i20. Eric Camilli claimed a career-best fifth in only his fifth start in a World Rally Car. The Frenchman had a broken handbrake in his Ford Fiesta RS today and a final stage spin almost allowed Jari-Matti Latvala to catch him. The gap was 5.3sec.
Latvala completed the rally with blistered and bandaged hands after wrestling his Polo R through the twisty mountains on Friday with broken power steering. Mads Østberg was almost three minutes behind in seventh in another Fiesta RS after downshifting problems and a broken driveshaft cost time.
Dani Sordo finished fourth after his hopes of a podium ended yesterday due to stability issues with the rear of his Hyundai i20. Eric Camilli claimed a career-best fifth in only his fifth start in a World Rally Car. The Frenchman had a broken handbrake in his Ford Fiesta RS today and a final stage spin almost allowed Jari-Matti Latvala to catch him. The gap was 5.3sec.
Latvala completed the rally with blistered and bandaged hands after wrestling his Polo R through the twisty mountains on Friday with broken power steering. Mads Østberg was almost three minutes behind in seventh in another Fiesta RS after downshifting problems and a broken driveshaft cost time.
Two WRC wins - here’s
hoping there will be many more for the man from Dungannon.
FINAL OVERALL STANDINGS (UNOFFICIAL)
1, Meeke / Nagle (DS 3 WRC) 3:59:01.0
2, Mikkelsen / Jaeger
(VW Polo-R WRC) +29.7
3, Ogier / Ingrassia (VW
Polo-R WRC) +34.5
4, Sordo / Marti
(Hyundai i20 WRC) +1:37.1
5, Camilli / Veillas
(Ford Fiesta RS WRC) +4:01.6
6, Latvala / Anttila (VW
Polo-R WRC) +4:06.9
7, Ostberg / Floene
(Ford Fiesta RS WRC) +6:53.6
8, Prokop / Tomanek
(Ford Fiesta RS WRC) +10:24.1
9, Tidemand / Andersson
(Skoda Fabia R5) +11:45.2
10, Fuchs / Mussano
(Skoda Fabia R5) +13:14.0