Meeke sitting third in Poland

The Irish crew of Kris Meeke/Paul Nagle (Citroen DS3 WRC) made a bright start to Rally Poland – round seven of the World Rally Championship – and hold third place, seven seconds behind the VW Polo WRC of leaders Sebastien Ogier/Julien Ingrassia heading into today’s seven stages.

On the opening stage Meeke was third quickest – 3.7 seconds behind Ogier, whose team-mate, Andreas Mikkelsen, was only a half a second behind. Indeed, Mikkelsen moved into the lead after the second stage, the former Fastnet Rally winner was second quickest on the stage but it was enough to propel him to the top of the leaderboard, a mere 0.4 of a second ahead of Ogier with Meeke just four seconds further behind.

Much was expected of local hero Robert Kubica but he rolled his Ford Fiesta WRC on the second stage. However, thanks to his many fans, he was back on the stage within 30 seconds to hold 11th overall. Hyundai’s Juho Hanninen posted the best stage time to move into fourth, 5.3 seconds off the lead. Meanwhile, Jari-Matti Latvala (VW Polo) was off the pace on the opening stages and was 21.2 seconds off top spot.