Meeke wins in Spain

Kris Meeke has completed a fast final day to win the Rally Catalunya and put to bed a run of outs for Citroen.

As much as the focus was on Meeke’s win, a second place for Sebastien Ogier closer to the 2017 WRC title.

The only stage Meeke didn’t win on the final day was the Power Stage, which went to Dani Sordo.

His final margin was 28sec.

“It’s not how many times you get knocked down, it’s how you get back up again,” said Meeke.

“And I’ve had to get up a few times in my career.”

Ogier slightly increased his small advantage over M-Sport teammate Ott Tanak to five seconds to secure second place, and extended the championship lead to 37 points.

Tanak is now one point ahead of Hyundai’s Neuville, who retired from the event on Sunday morning after re-starting after failing to finish the second leg.

Toyota’s Juho Hanninen was fourth followed by Mads Ostberg (Ford) and Citroen’s Stephane Lefebvre.

Elfyn Evans finished in seventh followed by WRC2 winner Teemu Suninen and the Skodas of Jan Kopecky and Ole Christian Veiby.

VIDEO: Morning Stages

VIDEO: Power Stage

 

Drivers’ Championship

Pos	Driver	Points
1	Sebastien Ogier	198
2	Ott Tanak	161
3	Thierry Neuville	160
4	Jari-Matti Latvala	123
5	Dani Sordo	94
6	Elfyn Evans	93
7	Juha Hänninen	71
8	Craig Breen	64
9	Kris Meeke	60
10	Hayden Paddon	55

 

Teams’ Championship

Pos	Driver	Points
1	M-Sport World Rally Team	358
2	Hyundai Motorsport	275
3	Toyota Gazoo Racing WRC	225
4	Citroen Total Abu Dhabi World Rally Team	198