Meeke: Citroen humble after Monte challenges

Kris Meeke is eager for his Citroen Total Abu Dhabi WRT squad to keep pushing the development of the C3 WRC machine having felt fortunate to leave Rallye Monte-Carlo with fourth place and the Power stage victory.

The Northern Irish driver called the 2018 WRC season opener “the hardest I have ever experienced” due to the constantly changing road and weather conditions which made predicting their best strategy extremely tricky. Meeke spent the majority of the event in the midfield on the general classification but a late charge saw him take fourth place – his best WRC finish at Monte-Carlo since 2014.

Coupled with his Power stage victory, Meeke holds joint-third place in the WRC drivers’ standings with Jari-Matti Latvala but concedes his factory Citroen squad needs to make quick improvements if he’s to take the fight to its manufacturer rivals.

“It was the hardest Monte-Carlo that I have ever experienced,” Meeke said. “We had everything: sheer ice on slick tyres on Thursday evening, rain on Friday, snow on Saturday and frost on the Col de Turini today.

“I'm surprised to finish the rally with seventeen points, but I'll certainly take them! We now have to stay humble and keep working hard to try and improve.”

Citroen clinched the fewest stage wins at the 2018 Rallye Monte-Carlo with just the single win but it proved to be vital to Meek’s late charge on the Power stage. The former WRC event winner will no prepare for next month’s all-snow event at the iconic Rally Sweden.