Meeke sixth in Sata Rallye Acores

REIGNING Intercontinental Rally champions, Kris Meeke and Paul Nagle in their Peugeot 207 S2000 are sixth overall after the opening leg of three stages of the Sata Rallye Acores, the seventh round of the series.

The Tyrone/Kerry pair ended last evening’s three stages 12.3 seconds behind the Skoda Fabia of series leader, Juho Hanninen.

Meeke’s team-mate, Peugeot Sport Portugal driver, Bruno Magalhaes, who won the 2008 event, was quickest on the first stage — three tenths of a second ahead of the M-Sport Ford Fiesta of Andreas Mikkelsen. Hanninen was third fastest followed by his Skoda team-mate Jan Kopecky. However, Meeke had to be content with fifth — suffering from running first with his Peugeot UK backed car having to clean the loose gravel off the road.