Meeke goes all the way at Rally de Catalunya

Kris Meeke (Citroën) scored his second victory of the season, the fifth of his career, by winning the Rally from Catalonia with almost half a minute ahead of his closest pursuers. The Northern Irishman proved untouchable in the final stage, winning all the stages except the Power Stage.

Le podium est complété par les pilotes M-Sport Sébastien Ogier et Ott Tänak qui sont restés en duel jusqu’à l’arrivée. Le Français a devancé son coéquipier estonien pour cinq secondes d’avance. Juho Hänninen est le seul pilote Toyota à l’arrivée suite à l’abandon d’Esapekka Lappi dans l’ES15 alors que le Finlandais occupait la sixième place.

Lappi retired / SS15 @RallyRACC #WRC Power Stage SS19 live on https://t.co/twccZ0hRvh from 12:00 (CEST) pic.twitter.com/PgydxjsYAn

— WRC (@OfficialWRC) 8th October, 2017

Le RACC n’aura décidément pas souri à Hyundai Motorsport puisque Thierry Neuville retired on SS16 after damaging his steering following contact with a stone, like his teammates Dani Sordo and Andreas Mikkelsen on the second day. The Spaniard's scratch in the Power Stage allows the Korean manufacturer to extend the deadline for the conclusion of the Manufacturers' Championship, with M-Sport still needing four points to win the title.

Game over?! @thierryneuville after SS16 @RallyRACC #WRC pic.twitter.com/Gq0McPNO2M

— WRC (@OfficialWRC) 8th October, 2017

Thierry Neuville's title hopes are dashing even further since the Belgian was caught by Ott Tänak who is 37 points behind Sébastien Ogier with two rallies remaining in the season.

Mads Ostberg (M-Sport) thus completed the top five of the Rally de Catalunya ahead of Stéphane Lefebvre (Citroën) slowed down by hydraulic problems and radio problems. The Frenchman was able to maintain a good lead over Elfyn Evans (M-Sport).

Teemu Suninen (Ford R5) took victory in WRC 2 by winning half a minute ahead of Jan Kopecky (Skoda), the Finn finishing in eighth place in the general classification ahead of the Czech. Benito Guerra (Skoda) completes the category podium by finishing behind Pierre-Louis Loubet (Ford R5) who was not entered in WRC 2. Éric Camilli (Ford R5) fell to fifth place following transmission problems .

Nil Solans wins the JWRC after securing the category title the day before. The national driver of the event won with a 1’33 lead over Frenchman Terry Folb. Nicolas Ciamin finished 20 minutes from the lead of the race.

Discover the analysis of the Rally of Catalonia carried out by our special correspondent in issue 2135 of AUTOhebdo, available from Monday evening in digital version on all platforms, and from Wednesday on newsstands.