Irish pair win in Brazil

Ireland's, Kris Meeke and Paul Nagle (Peugeot 207 S2000) have won the Rally Internacional de Curitiba in Brazil, the second round of the Intercontinental Rally Challenge (IRC).

They finished 26.2 seconds ahead of the similar car of Belgium's, Nicolas Vouilloz.

Giandomenico Basso (Fiat Abarth) was third.

Meeke, who set fastest times on all seven stages yesterday, gave a controlled performance today as he ran first on the road.

Having to sweep the loose gravel off the track, it wasn't surprising that he lost time to his rivals.

By the completion of the opening loop, Basso had trimmed Meeke's advantage to some 22 seconds.

However, the Irish crew in their Kronos run Peugeot UK backed car set the pace on the eleventh stage, a repeat of S.S. 8.

There, they added some 4.8 seconds to their lead over fellow Peugeot driver Nicolas Vouilloz, who moved into second after Basso dropped over ten seconds when he stalled at the start of the test.

Belgium's, Freddy Loix, who was fourth, is the new leader of the IRC with a total of 13 points.

Meanwhile, having lost a podium finish in Monte Carlo, Meeke is now very much back in the title hunt.

He's amongst a trio of drivers on ten points.

The other duo are Sebastien Ogier and Giandomenico Basso. Nicolas Vouilloz is next with eight points.

1. K. Meeke/P/ Nagle (Peugeot) 2h. 08m. 05.7s

2. N. Vouilloz/N. Klinger (Peugeot) +26.2s

3. G. Basso/M. Dotta (Abarth) +47.9s

4. F. Loix/I. Smets (Peugeot) +2m32.1s

5. A. Cancio/S. Nani (Mitsubishi) +5m20.0s

6. R. Tulio/C. Valandro (Peugeot) +19m04.0s