Meeke and Nagle up against it in sixth place

IN what is clearly their most difficult assignment to date, Irish pair Kris Meeke and Paul Nagle lie in sixth place heading to today’s final leg of Rali Vinho Madeira, the seventh round of the Intercontinental Rally Challenge.

It all began well for Dungannon/ Killarney duo, who lead the series and had targeted a top-three finish. They posted the best time on the opening super special stage but out on the stages they found the going difficult as their Peugeot 307 S2000 car struggled with a gear ratio that wasn’t suited to the stages.

Meeke spent most of the morning in fifth as he battled with Belgian rival Freddy Loix (Peugeot). The pair swapped places several times before Loix (sixth) moved 3.5 seconds ahead after the ninth stage. Meeke replaced the door of his car at one of the service halts and set the fastest time on stage 12 to edge clear of Loix.