Meeke slips up in Poland

Motorsport: The Irish duo of Kris Meeke/Paul Nagle (Citroen DS3 WRC) had a frustrating day in Rally Poland, round seven of the World Rally Championship, and heading into the short Super Special stage late last evening, they had dropped to fifth position.

Up front, Andreas Mikkelsen (VW Polo WRC) led his team-mate Sebastien Ogier by a mere second as the pair traded the lead position throughout the day.

In the morning’s opening stage, which was shortened from 26.61km to 12.92km after heavy rain prior to the rally caused severe deterioration to the condition of the road, Mikkelsen reclaimed the lead from Ogier, albeit by four tenths of a second, with Meeke/Nagle continuing in third.

However, on SS5 they lost a place to their Citroen team-mate Mads Ostberg, who was 6.7 seconds quicker on the stage, to move 2.9 seconds in front of the Irish pair.

Meanwhile, Ogier regained the lead on SS6 to move 1.5 seconds in front of Mikkelsen. Their team-mate Jari-Matti Latvala was 29.4 seconds off the lead in fourth place and lacking confidence. Ostberg led Citroen’s charge in third but Meeke lost another place.

Elsewhere Alastair Fisher/Gordon Noble (Citroen DS3) are third in the WRC3 category. There are 10 stages today and four more in tomorrow’s final leg.