Meeke leads Argentina superspecial

The Peugeot UK driver had a scare on this morning's shakedown when he broke a wishbone on a rock, but when the real action started he set a benchmark time of 2m32.8s around the Carlos Paz asphalt stage, which the crews had to tackle on gravel tyres in the rain.

"We had a good enough run but you can lose everything, especially with the rain coming - it was impossible to tell what grip you had," Meeke said. "I enjoyed it, the fans are incredible. The amount of people here is unbelievable."

Bruno Magalhaes took a surprise second place on the stage for Peugeot Portugal, ahead of Skoda trio Guy Wilks, Jan Kopecy and Juho Hanninen.

Local hero Federico Villagra was seventh in his first competitive outing in the S2000 Ford, but ended the stage concerned by some smoke from his car.

Nasser Al-Attiyah currently runs 10th on his IRC debut in the Barwa Skoda.

Pos  Driver                 Car        Time/Gap
 1.  Kris Meeke             Peugeot     2m32.8s
 2.  Bruno Magalhaes        Peugeot      + 1.4s
 3.  Guy Wilks              Skoda        + 2.2s
 4.  Jan Kopecky            Skoda        + 2.9s
 5.  Juho Hanninen          Skoda        + 2.9s
 6.  Juan Manuel Marchetto  Mitsubishi   + 7.2s
 7.  Federico Villagra      Ford         + 7.8s
 8.  Miguel Baldoni         Mitsubishi   + 8.4s
 9.  Daniel Oliveira        Peugeot      + 9.3s
10.  Nasser Al-Attiyah      Skoda        + 9.4s