New-look Portugal gets thumbs-up
New route and spectator zones worked well
Matton: Meeke no longer has to prove himself
Citroën Racing boss Yves Matton believes Kris Meeke no longer has to battle to show he has the speed to win WRC rounds.
After last month’s breakthrough success in Argentina, Meeke was again in the fight for victory at Vodafone Rally de Portugal and trailed winner Jari-Matti Latvala by only six seconds midway through Saturday’s penultimate leg.
“Argentina helped him a lot in the fact that he is less stressed,” Matton told wrc.com. “Knowing he has won one rally, he can step away a little and what he did in Portugal was what we expected from him. Now he doesn’t need to always fight to prove he is able to win.”
Meeke eventually finished fourth in his DS 3 after a broken anti-roll bar in Sunday’s final leg meant the Ulsterman could not duel with Volkswagen’s Andreas Mikkelsen for the final podium place.
“He showed he was able to fight for the lead until Saturday night. He lost a little bit of time on Saturday afternoon due to tyre wear and on Sunday we saw it wasn’t possible to fight for third. He was able to follow the plan to bring the two cars into a good position to take points for the championship.
“He wants to stay in this positive trend and try to be as close as possible to the lead and then take the opportunities when he has them, like he did in Argentina,” added Matton.
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