Emotional Meeke wins in Argentina
Citroën driver breaks WRC duck
Meeke: It's payback time!
Kris Meeke believes victory at XION Rally Argentina is some payback for the faith put in him by Citroën Racing boss Yves Matton.
Matton has been a supporter of Meeke since he managed the Briton's JWRC campaign with Citroën in 2005. After taking over at Citroën Racing, Matton was instrumental in signing him to the WRC squad in 2014. And despite mixed results that season, Matton underlined his commitment by keeping him in 2015.
"It's been an unbelievable weekend, a dream come true, and I have to thank Yves for believing in me when nobody else would," Meeke told wrc.com.
"He took me on when I hadn't done a rally in over two years. I thought it was the end of my career but he gave me an opportunity. Okay, it's been a long road, and he had a lot of patience with me, but this is one little step to start to repay him and Citroën. Hopefully there's more to come."
Meeke acknowledged he was feeling the pressure to deliver, especially after crashes on the opening three rounds this year. "I've had some difficulties this year managing to get to the finish line without mistakes. I definitely needed to improve," he said
"In your second year you have to try and make it count, but I was possibly working too much and putting in too much effort - I was choking myself to a certain degree. The long break after Mexico allowed me to forget about it and come back with a clean sheet. I came here with no expectations of success - I simply wanted to put my season back on track.
"A top six would have been nice to get some momentum going, but right from the first run on Shakedown I felt good in the car. We had a fantastic run through Ascochinga, pulled 30 seconds ahead and from then on it just clicked."
