Kris Meeke has completed a fast final day to win the Rally Catalunya and put to bed a run of outs for Citroen.
As much as the focus was on Meeke’s win, a second place for Sebastien Ogier closer to the 2017 WRC title.
The only stage Meeke didn’t win on the final day was the Power Stage, which went to Dani Sordo.
His final margin was 28sec.
“It’s not how many times you get knocked down, it’s how you get back up again,” said Meeke.
“And I’ve had to get up a few times in my career.”
Ogier slightly increased his small advantage over M-Sport teammate Ott Tanak to five seconds to secure second place, and extended the championship lead to 37 points.
Tanak is now one point ahead of Hyundai’s Neuville, who retired from the event on Sunday morning after re-starting after failing to finish the second leg.
Toyota’s Juho Hanninen was fourth followed by Mads Ostberg (Ford) and Citroen’s Stephane Lefebvre.
Elfyn Evans finished in seventh followed by WRC2 winner Teemu Suninen and the Skodas of Jan Kopecky and Ole Christian Veiby.
VIDEO: Morning Stages
VIDEO: Power Stage
FINAL POSITIONS: Rally Catalunya – Rally de España
| POS | DRIVER | TEAM | CAR | TIME/GAP |
| 1 | Kris Meeke | Citroen Total Abu Dhabi WRT | Citroen | 3:01:21.1 |
| 2 | Sebastien Ogier | M-Sport World Rally Team | Ford | +0:28.0 |
| 3 | Ott Tanak | M-Sport World Rally Team | Ford | +0:33.0 |
| 4 | Juho Hanninen | Toyota Gazoo Racing WRC | Toyota | +0:54.1 |
| 5 | Mads Ostberg | M-Sport World Rally Team | Ford | +2:26.2 |
| 6 | Stephane Lefebvre | Citroen Total Abu Dhabi WRT | Citroen | +2:43.0 |
| 7 | Elfyn Evans | M-Sport World Rally Team | Ford | +4:37.4 |
| 8 | Teemu Suninen | M-Sport World Rally Team | Ford | +8:22.7 |
| 9 | Jan Kopecky | Skoda Motorsport II | Skoda | +8:54.5 |
| 10 | Ole-Christian Veiby | Printsport | Skoda | +9:04.8 |
Drivers’ Championship
| Pos | Driver | Points |
| 1 | Sebastien Ogier | 198 |
| 2 | Ott Tanak | 161 |
| 3 | Thierry Neuville | 160 |
| 4 | Jari-Matti Latvala | 123 |
| 5 | Dani Sordo | 94 |
| 6 | Elfyn Evans | 93 |
| 7 | Juha Hänninen | 71 |
| 8 | Craig Breen | 64 |
| 9 | Kris Meeke | 60 |
| 10 | Hayden Paddon | 55 |
Teams’ Championship
| Pos | Driver | Points |
| 1 | M-Sport World Rally Team | 358 |
| 2 | Hyundai Motorsport | 275 |
| 3 | Toyota Gazoo Racing WRC | 225 |
| 4 | Citroen Total Abu Dhabi World Rally Team | 198 |
Discussion about this post