Kris Meeke has seen his 2017 Rallye Monte Carlo adventures come to an end after finding himself with a damaged right wheel following a collision with another car on the open road between Gap and Monaco on Saturday.
The Northern Irishman was hit from behind in the road accident, and the damage to his Citroen C3 WRC was too much to be able to continue, with no service available before the rally restarts on Sunday in the principality.
Meeke had shown good pace early in the rally having run as high as second before retiring from the opening day’s running with a broken suspension, while an ignition problem had cost him more than twenty-five minutes on SS9, but the crash on the road has now ended his whole event.
“It was good to be back in the rally today,” said Meeke. “We spent the day learning. It was a bit difficult to get the confidence back and find the right pace in these conditions.
“The last stage was drier and we managed to find some decent speed. We gathered a lot of information, so we’ve now got some work to do to analyse all of that and make progress.
“Although I could no longer aim for a good overall result, I’m very disappointed not be able to contest the final leg. The Col de Turini is always one of the highlights of the season.”
