Peugeot and Kris Meeke win the Belgium Ypres Rally

Having already won the last two gravel rallies, Peugeot UK’s 207 S2000 driven by Kris Meeke and Paul Nagle has won this weekend’s Belgium Ypres rally.

Unlike the dreadful conditions the team had to face in the Azores, the weather in Belgium was a lot better. However, it was not all plain sailing for the Peugeot UK team as during the shakedown, Kris got slightly off line and ripped the right-hand rear wheel off the car.

The Kronos based Peugeot UK technicians then had to rebuild the rear of the car before Kris went out and set the second fastest time in the shakedown.

Friday saw the start of the rally which Kris opened in great style, setting the fastest time in the first special stage. He then traded fastest times with Peugeot Belgium’s, and rally favourite Freddy Loix, to finish the first day in second place just 4.9 seconds behind.

Day two, Saturday, saw Kris again set the fastest time in the opening stage and reduce Freddy Loix’s lead to just 2 seconds. Then Freddy and Kris traded fastest stage times until on stage 10 Kris beat Freddy by 2.1 seconds to reduce his lead to just two tenths of a second. By stage 12 Kris was leading the rally with

Freddy eight tenths of a second behind. Freddy then pushed as hard as he could in the next stage but having to push his car to the limit resulted in him picking up a puncture and losing nearly 2 minutes. Kris was now leading the rally by 21.5 seconds from Jan Kopecky in a Skoda Fabia S2000.

Freddy tried to fight back but Kris’s lead was too much even for the Belgium Ypres specialist and at the end of the final stage Kris won the rally by 20.4 seconds from Jan Kopecky (Skoda Fabia S2000) and Freddy finished in third in his Peugeot 207 S2000.

Kris Meeke now leads the driver’s championship by 6 points from Freddy Loix in second place and Peugeot continue to dominate the manufacturer’s championship with 68 points to Mitsubishi’s 35.