Meeke closes on Curitiba victory
Kris Meeke (Peugeot UK) is closing on victory in the Rally of Curitiba, having continued to edge away from nearest challenger Guy Wilks (Skoda UK) on the final morning
The gap between the two Britons is now up to 35.4 seconds, with both aiming to maintain their positions and have a conservative run to the finish.
"It's really pretty good at the moment - I'm just trying to stay on the road and take no chances," said Meeke.
Meeke and Wilks are now under no threat from the factory Skodas as Jan Kopecky sustained a puncture on today's first stage, dropping him to within range of team-mate Juho Hanninen, who had the same problem yesterday. Hanninen was fastest on all three stages this morning and has now taken third from his team-mate.
Bruno Magalhaes remains a lonely fifth, while fellow Peugeot driver Daniel Oliveira has fallen back behind the best of the Group N cars after sustaining a puncture of his own.
Today's itinerary has been truncated by poor weather, with a heavy thunderstorm overnight causing river levels to rise substantially. That forced the cancellation of this morning's run through Rio Pesqueiro, with a decision due shortly on whether the stage will be safe to use later on today, when it is scheduled to run as SS12.
The final superspecial has also been changed to a demonstration run as the weather prevented the crews from reaching it for a recce, so the last timed stage will now be SS14 - which could be one of only two stages on the final loop if Rio Pesqueiro is canned again.
Pos Driver Car Time/Gap 1. Kris Meeke Peugeot 1h20m57.0s 2. Guy Wilks Skoda + 35.4s 3. Juho Hanninen Skoda + 1m31.9s 4. Jan Kopecky Skoda + 1m44.3s 5. Bruno Magalhaes Peugeot + 3m31.5s 6. Eduardo Peredo Mitsubishi + 11m13.7s 7. Eduardo Scheer Mitsubishi + 11m36.6s 8. Daniel Oliveira Peugeot + 12m16.4s 9. Rafael Tulio VW + 14m47.1s 10. Juan San Martin Subaru + 18m54.5s
Be part of the Autosport community
Join the conversationShare Or Save This Story
Subscribe and access Autosport.com with your ad-blocker.
From Formula 1 to MotoGP we report straight from the paddock because we love our sport, just like you. In order to keep delivering our expert journalism, our website uses advertising. Still, we want to give you the opportunity to enjoy an ad-free and tracker-free website and to continue using your adblocker.
Top Comments