Kris Meeke completed Day 1 at the 2016 Tour de Corse – Rallye de France in eleventh place for Citroën Racing.
Meeke, who was fighting for the lead of the rally with Volkswagen’s Sébastien Ogier, suffered a slow tyre puncture on SS3 which the Northern Irishman made a tyre change, losing around over +2:27.2 minutes to the rally leader, leaving Meeke in thirteenth.
The Rally Finland-winner fought back in impressive style to achieve the second-quickest time on SS4 to finish Day 1 in Corsica in eleventh, just shy of the top ten.
Meeke said after Day 1 at the Tour de Corse “The morning went pretty well. On the opening stage of the afternoon, I don’t know what happened but I felt that we had lost some grip on the left-hand side.
“I kept going for a bit before it became clear that we had a puncture. We stopped to change the wheel because there were still a lot of kilometres left on the stage. It’s really strange because it didn’t feel like we had hit anything at all.
“As I’m not competing in the championship, I can’t be too frustrated by the situation, but I would have liked to keep fighting for the lead all the same. Having said that, I’m pleased with my rhythm and my speed throughout the day. We’ll try to keep doing the same thing tomorrow and just enjoy ourselves in the car.”
