Kris Meeke rolls on to seventh at Rally Spain

Having rolled their Abu Dhabi Total Citroen DS3 WRC on yesterday’s opening stage of Rally Spain (S.S. 2), the Irish pair of Kris Meeke and Paul Nagle fought their way back to finish the day in seventh — a place and 38.3 seconds ahead of their teammates Waterford’s Craig Breen/Scott Martin.

Wexford’s Eamonn Boland and co-driver Micky Joe Morrissey (Fiesta R5) are 25th.

Heavy rain made for difficult conditions and Meeke didn’t have the best of luck on the day’s first stage.

He explained what happened, “I turned into a left-hander and ran into some ruts. I backed off and thought okay, we’re going to spin, but the car slid, touched a bank and we went over."

He regained his composure and was satisfied with his performance over the remaining stages — he posted the best time on the day’s final stage.

Meanwhile, Breen’s best performance came on yesterday’s penultimate stage where he was fourth quickest.

Out in front Spaniard Dani Sordo (Hyundai i20 WRC) leads the VW Polo of Sebastien Ogier by 17 seconds with Andreas Mikkelsen, also in a VW Polo WRC 18.1 seconds further behind in third. The rally switches to tarmac surface today and tomorrow.