Meeke dominates Curitiba day one

The Peugeot UK driver was fastest on all bar one of today's seven stages, giving him a comfortable half minute lead over his compatriot Guy Wilks (Skoda UK).

"I'm very, very happy, an excellent day, and what can I say about the car? It's brilliant," said Meeke. "We have to get our thinking cap on tomorrow and drive accordingly. There's supposed to be less rain tomorrow than today - and the sun's been shining all day."

Wilks was almost as content with his second place, especially as Meeke was the only Intercontinental Rally Challenge regular with previous experience of the event, having won it last year while Skoda opted out of that round.

"It's a good day, we have to remember that Kris has been here before," Wilks said. "I think he's driven really well, and we've done well on our first time.

"It's been difficult - short mileage but tricky roads and tricky conditions. I think we should've been on harder compound [tyres] for these stages and maybe we could've set some fastest times."

Jan Kopecky is still third in the best of the factory Skodas, with his team-mate Juho Hanninen now up to fourth ahead of Peugeot Portugal's Bruno Magalhaes as he continues his recovery following this morning's puncture.

Pos  Driver           Car          Time/Gap
 1.  Kris Meeke       Peugeot      49m17.2s
 2.  Guy Wilks        Skoda         + 32.7s
 3.  Jan Kopecky      Skoda       + 1m00.1s
 4.  Juho Hanninen    Skoda       + 1m42.7s
 5.  Bruno Magalhaes  Peugeot     + 2m07.9s
 6.  Daniel Oliveira  Peugeot     + 5m58.7s
 7.  Eduardo Scheer   Mitsubishi  + 7m16.1s
 8.  Eduardo Peredo   Mitsubishi  + 7m19.5s
 9.  Rafael Tulio     VW          + 8m53.3s
10.  Bernardo Koller  GM          + 9m16.3s