News
Meeke and Nagle keep Citroen drive for Rally Catalunya
K
KRIS MEEKE and Paul Nagle will keep their Citroen place for the next round of the World Rally Championship in Spain next month. Their teammates for the event will be Stephane Lefebvre and Khalid Al Qassimi, leaving no space for fellow Irish driver Craig Breen.
Andreas Mikkelsen, who has contested three rallies for the Citroen this season, replacing Meeke for one, will complete the campaign with rival manufacturer Hyundai.
Despite Meeke having a full-season contract with Citroen, his place in the team had not been confirmed for Cataluyna after he struggled for form on Rally Finland followed by a crash in Germany last month.
While Breen misses out in Spain, he will be back in for the last two rallies of the season. Meeke's Citroen deal was supposed to cover every event of both the 2017 and '18 WRC seasons, but Citroen will now leave decisions on team line-ups as late as they can for the rest of this year.
Andreas Mikkelsen switch from Citroen to Hyundai for the remainder of the season, ahead of an expected full 2018 campaign with the Korean manufacturer will be welcome news for Meeke. However a strong end to the season now is more critical than ever to secure a place in Citroen’s line-up for 2018.