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
FINAL POSITIONS: Rally Catalunya – Rally de España
POS
DRIVER
TEAM
CAR
TIME/GAP
1
Kris Meeke
Citroen Total Abu Dhabi WRT
Citroen
3:01:21.1
2
Sebastien Ogier
M-Sport World Rally Team
Ford
+0:28.0
3
Ott Tanak
M-Sport World Rally Team
Ford
+0:33.0
4
Juho Hanninen
Toyota Gazoo Racing WRC
Toyota
+0:54.1
5
Mads Ostberg
M-Sport World Rally Team
Ford
+2:26.2
6
Stephane Lefebvre
Citroen Total Abu Dhabi WRT
Citroen
+2:43.0
7
Elfyn Evans
M-Sport World Rally Team
Ford
+4:37.4
8
Teemu Suninen
M-Sport World Rally Team
Ford
+8:22.7
9
Jan Kopecky
Skoda Motorsport II
Skoda
+8:54.5
10
Ole-Christian Veiby
Printsport
Skoda
+9:04.8
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
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