to an interesting start in Belgium

Peugeot UK and Kris Meeke finished the Belgium Ypres Rally shakedown with the joint second fastest time, after an interesting first run.

With the sun shining and a dry 5 km shakedown stage, conditions were perfect yesterday for Kris's first run. However, half way through the stage, Kris went slightly wide on the narrow Belgium road and broke the right-hand rear wheel. It was, therefore, a three-wheeled Peugeot 207 which emerged back at the service area.

A testimony to the inherent strength of the Peugeot 207 S2000 saw Kris's service crew quickly replace the broken wheel and lower wishbone, before he was back out on the stage.

With the wheel incident behind them Kris and Paul then set the joint second fastest "shakedown" time.

By the end of the Shakedown, Jan Kopecky in his Skoda Fabia S2000 and Thierry Neuville driving the B F Goodrich Drivers' Team Peugeot 207 S2000 were joint fastest with a time of 2:49.2. Joint second was Kris Meeke and local favourite Freddy Loix with a time of 2:49.3, one tenth of a second behind.

Kris's old sparring partner Guy Wilks who is competing in his first IRC round finished in 15th place, 5.9 seconds behind Kris.

Final Results - Shake Down 18th June

Jan Kopecky  Skoda Fabia S2000 - 2:49.2Thierry Neuville Peugeot 207 S2000 - 2:49.2Kris Meeke  Peugeot 207 S2000 - 2:49.3Freddy Loix Peugeot 207 S2000 - 2:49.3Nicolas Vouilloz  Peugeot 207 S2000 - 2:49.4Francois Duval Skoda Fabia S2000 - 2:50.0Juho Hanninen  Skoda Fabia S2000 - 2:50.2Guy Wilks  Proton Satria Neo S2000 - 2:55.2