Meeke wins Rally de Curitiba

The Briton won all seven stages on Friday and carried a 48-second lead into this morning's stages. He lost time to his pursuers early in the day while running first on the road, but consolidated his advantage this afternoon to claim the victory comfortably.

"It's been a fantastic event, probably the best rally I have ever done," Meeke said at the finish.

Giandomenico Basso, who was second overnight, won the first two stages of the day in his Abarth Grand Punto and almost halved Meeke's lead, but Meeke upped his pace in the afternoon to win SS11 and made sure of the win.

Basso then came under attack from Nicolas Vouilloz who won SS10 and took second place when he was second to Meeke on SS11.

Basso and Vouilloz were separated by just five seconds going into the last two stages, but Vouilloz was quicker on both - winning one and tying Meeke for the fastest time on the other - to complete a 1-2 finish for Peugeot.

Freddy Loix finished the rally in fourth place, albeit more than one and a half minutes adrift of Basso. Alejandro Cancio finished fifth as the first of the South American entrants.

Anton Alen, who lost seven minutes on the first day when he struck a rock and broke his left rear suspension, retired from the rally for good when he crashed on SS9.

His father, former world rally champion Markku, reported: "They are OK, but the car went off the road and I think there is some damage to the rear. It's a real shame as Anton had a lot of speed here."

Pos Driver                  Car                Time
 1. Kris Meeke              Peugeot       2:08:05.7
 2. Nicolas Vouilloz        Peugeot           +26.2
 3. Giandomenico Basso      Abarth            +47.9
 4. Freddy Loix             Peugeot         +2:32.1
 5. Alejandro Cancio        Mitsubishi      +5:20.0
 6. Rafael Tulio            Peugeot        +19:04.0