Meeke makes fast start in Brazil
Peugeot UK's Kris Meeke has dominated the opening loop of stages in the Rally of Curitiba, the second round of the Intercontinental Rally Challenge
Reigning champion Meeke is the only one of the IRC frontrunners who contested this event last year, and he put that experience to good use by winning all four stages this morning.
That performance has given Meeke a 23.1-second lead over Skoda UK driver Guy Wilks, who has shown much better form than in Monte Carlo to establish himself in second.
Having taken second behind World Rally Championship visitor Mikko Hirvonen in Monte Carlo, Skoda's Juho Hanninen was the best-placed IRC regular in the championship heading to Brazil. But his Curitiba weekend got off to a bad start when he suffered a puncture on the very first stage.
Hanninen lost nearly one and a half minutes and fell to sixth, but has already reclaimed fifth from Daniel Oliveira and is closing on Bruno Magalhaes' fourth place.
Jan Kopecky holds third in the second works Skoda, 19s behind Wilks.
Pos Driver Car Time/Gap 1. Kris Meeke Peugeot 29m56.1s 2. Guy Wilks Skoda + 23.1s 3. Jan Kopecky Skoda + 42.3s 4. Bruno Magalhaes Peugeot + 1m20.9s 5. Juho Hanninen Skoda + 1m36.8s 6. Daniel Oliveira Peugeot + 3m37.3s 7. Eduardo Peredo Mitsubishi + 4m44.0s 8. Eduardo Scheer Mitsubishi + 4m51.1s 9. Rafael Tulio VW + 5m34.4s 10. Bernardo Koller GM + 5m35.5s
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