Kris Meeke gets his Championship back on track with a podium finish Rookie Elfyn Evans gave a faultless performance to finish in seventh position

British rally stars Kris Meeke (Citroen Total Abu Dhabi World Rally Team) and Elfyn Evans (M-Sport World Rally Team) made significant progress in the 2014 World Rally Championship (WRC) at the weekend. The pair overcame perilous conditions to finish third and seventh respectively in Rally Argentina. The fifth round of the championship is one of the toughest on the calendar, and the treacherous stages and changeable weather conditions undid a number of drivers, including the experienced Mads Ostberg and Mikko Hirvonen as early as day one.

Meeke adopted a cautious approach to Rally Argentina. After a string of bad luck in Portugal and Mexico, the goal was simply to finish in his first visit to the difficult Argentine stages. However, guided by co-driver Paul Nagle, they had a superb drive on the hazardous roads to finish third, their second podium finish of the year, providing them a much needed confidence boost.Welshman Evans and co-driver Daniel Barritt were also purely aiming to bring the car home in their first attempt at the notoriously tricky Rally Argentina. Evans showed real maturity, resisting the temptation to push as hard as he could and sticking to the strategy to learn the stages and be in a better position for next year. The strategy paid off with the British duo scoring a solid seventh position giving them valuable championship points in their development year.

Jari-Matti Latvala took the overall win ahead of his Volkswagen team-mate, and Championship leader, Sebastien Ogier.

Britons Meeke and Evans will look to continue their positive progress in the next event – Rally d’Italia Sardegna from 5th to 8th June. The WRC season culminates with the famous British round, Wales Rally GB, on 13 – 16 November 2014. Both drivers are already looking forward to competing in their home event and World Rally Passes are on sale now at www.walesrallygb.comKris Meeke said at the finish: “I was determined to get a good result at this Rally Argentina. I focussed on driving as precisely as possible so as to not take any risks. I used every second I had to make sure of getting across the finish line. It was difficult but this is a fantastic result. I would like to dedicate it to everyone in the team. They put a lot of faith in me, so I owed them one!”Elfyn Evans said: “It’s not been easy to display good speed whist being safe at the same time and, for me, it has definitely been the most difficult event of the year. When you’re trying to learn a new rally you tend to settle into a rhythm as the event unfolds, but here, there is something new all the time and you are constantly learning how to tackle each variation.

“With regards to the first day, the stages were very technical in nature and there was no margin for error. Yesterday was quite high-speed with a really soft surface so it was quite difficult to commit, and today the weather made things very tricky with mixed conditions within the stages themselves.“Although it has admittedly been a bit of a frustrating weekend for me, I know that the amount we have learnt will undoubtedly help my development for the future. We’ve made it to the end without incident and that is a big positive. Now it’s just a case of going back over the data with the team to decipher exactly where we can improve for next year.”