Kris Meeke’s bid to win the Portuguese Rally Championship is all but over after he crashed out from this weekend’s Rali Vinho da Madeira.
Round six of this year’s eight-round series, Madeira was the second asphalt event in succession and Meeke, in his Hyundai Portugal i20 N Rally2, was in good form having won the previous Tarmac round, Rali de Castelo Branco.
Coupled with Brian Hoy as regular co-driver James Fulton was competing in Finland with Josh McErlean, Meeke kicked things off with two stage wins on the first pair of stages but it all went wrong on SS3 as he crashed out.
“We ran wide and touched a wall. My mistake,” Meeke admitted.
“Unfortunately that was rally over for us. Thanks Brian Hoy for the work, we’ll be back!”
Meeke’s exit promoted two-time European Rally champion Giandomenico Basso into the lead, but it was the Škoda-driving Alexandre Camacho who would ultimately take victory by 20.2 seconds.
José Pedro Fontes was third but took maximum Portuguese championship points, finishing ahead of ERC regular Simone Campedelli and reigning Portuguese champion Armindo Araújo.
With two rounds of the season remaining, Meeke is sixth in the points table with two wins and two retirements.
He can still win the championship, but it would require a big slice of fortune. With the best seven from eight scores to count, Meeke’s maximum possible total is 106 points which is the tally current points leader Miguel Correia has now.
