Throughout the rally, Meeke was in a class of his own.
However, towards the end, Meeke suffered a tyre puncture, and the gap momentarily reduced to just over two seconds. Afterwards, Meeke regained his pace and ultimately secured the victory with a margin of 11.1 seconds over the runner-up, Pierre-Louis Loubet.
Meeke competed in the Rali Terras d’Aboboreira driving a Hyundai Rally2 car. This time, his co-driver was Stuart Loudon.
The rally comprised a total of seven special stages, accumulating just over 100 kilometres. Meeke set the fastest times on four of the stages.
Yohan Rossel, known from the WRC2 class, finished third in the rally, trailing Meeke’s lead pace by 24.3 seconds.
Nikolay Gryazin, now competing under the Bulgarian flag, finished fourth, and Josh McErlean was fifth.
The most distressing incident occurred during the sixth special stage when Portuguese driver Ricardo Teodosio crashed heavily. His Hyundai Rally2 car rolled several times.
Fortunately, despite the dramatic crash, the crew was unharmed, but the car was badly damaged, ending Teodosio’s rally there.
Kris Meeke’s season will continue next at the Rally de Portugal in mid-May. He will also be driving a Hyundai Rally2 car in the WRC event.
