Kris Meeke "happy to have achieved" win for late friend Craig Breen

The 43-year-old – who was navigated on his Hyundai Portugal debut by Ola Floene – was a convincing winner of the event, finishing it 15.5 seconds quicker than Marco Bulacia’s Skoda Fabia Rally2. Alejandro Cachon rounded out the top three in his Citroen C3 Rally2.

Fastest in qualifying, Meeke also recorded scratch times on seven of the nine special stages despite his last competitive outing in a rally car coming on the Qatar International Rally last February.

Leading from start to finish with his Norweigan co-driver, success came despite Meeke having only briefly tested the South Korean supermini on gravel prior to the rally.

“I am very happy and I cannot hide the emotion I feel with this victory, which was won in honour of Craig Breen, who will always be with us,” said Meeke, who is next in action at Rally de Portugal which also doubles up as a counting round of the FIA World Rally Championship (May 11th-14th).

“I feel happy to have achieved Team Hyundai Portugal’s big goal in this rally and to have made my debut with a win. It was not at all easy – especially on the second day when I was first on the road – but from the very first corner I felt comfortable and competitive in the i20 N Rally2.

“It is a long uphill in these R5 cars – the soft stages suck the power out of the engine – but I tried to be as clean as possible. It was a nice way to finish the rally and to be able to complete the job,” he added.

As part of his programme for 2023, Breen was dovetailing his appearances in the FIA World Rally Championship with the Portuguese Rally Championship. The 33-year-old Irishman won the first round of the national competition with James Fulton but crashed out of round two.

Meeke agreed to start the event and every remaining round of the Portuguese Rally Championship this year following the sudden death of Breen in a pre-Croatia Rally testing accident last month.

Team management identified Meeke as the perfect person to “carry on the legacy” of Breen, with the car used for last weekend’s meeting running a special one-off tribute livery inspired by the Irish tricolour.

Meeke and Breen were former Citroen Racing team-mates in the FIA World Rally Championship from 2016 to 2018, with both securing maiden podium finishes in the series with the French automaker.