May 22, 2016 – Citroen’s Kris Meeke returned to the World Rally Championship in style as he secured victory on the Rally of Portugal.
Meeke took his second WRC win by a margin of 29.7 seconds and led the way from Friday morning’s second stage to the finish. His victory was the first for a Briton in Portugal since Richard Burns achieved the same feat in 2000.
The Northern Irishman took advantage of the running order on Friday, and the benefit of others road sweeping for him, before driving more conservatively on Sunday’s stages to secure his result ahead of Andreas Mikkelsen.
Mikkelsen overcame current world champion Sebastien Ogier, who has now gone three rallies without a win, for second despite the Frenchman having been Meeke’s main rival for most of the weekend.
Sordo was unable to show the same level of pace, and fell away from the battle to take fourth behind Ogier at rally’s end.
Eric Camilli was an impressive fifth, with Rally Portugal’s attrition aiding his charge as well as strong pace.
Source: autosport.com
| Pos | Driver | Team | Car | Gap |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Kris Meeke | Abu Dhabi Total WRT | Citroen | 3h59m01.0s |
| 2 | Andreas Mikkelsen | Volkswagen Motorsport II | Volkswagen | 29.7s |
| 3 | Sebastien Ogier | Volkswagen Motorsport | Volkswagen | 34.5s |
| 4 | Dani Sordo | Hyundai Motorsport | Hyundai | 1m37.1s |
| 5 | Eric Camilli | M-Sport World Rally Team | Ford | 4m01.6s |
| 6 | Jari-Matti Latvala | Volkswagen Motorsport | Volkswagen | 4m06.9s |
| 7 | Mads Ostberg | M-Sport World Rally Team | Ford | 6m53.6s |
| 8 | Martin Prokop | Jipocar Czech National Team | Ford | 10m24.1s |
| 9 | Pontus Tidemand | Skoda Motorsport | Skoda | 11m45.2s |
| 10 | Nicolas Fuchs | Skoda | 13m14.0s |
