Kris Meeke says he is keen to add to his winning tally after securing his first victory in the Intercontinental Rally Challenge during last weekend's Rally de Curitiba.

The Peugeot UK driver was in dominant form in Brazil and won all of the stages on leg one to put himself firmly in the driving seat before maintaining his advantage through the second leg to take the victory.

Meeke will miss the next event in Kenya before resuming his campaign on the Sata Rally Acores in May and he said he would need to push hard to add to his win tally when his season gets back underway.

“I'm going to have to work as hard, if not harder, to make sure we can do it again,” he said. “Skoda will be back for the Azores and that will just add another dimension to it all and make it more difficult.

“The Azores is going to be a new event for a lot of the drivers and, like Brazil, that will mean a level playing field. I showed in Brazil what I could do so I have to believe in my ability to make good pace notes from scratch again.”

Meeke added that he expects some of his rivals to be stronger on the asphalt events to come, meaning a strong result on the gravel rallies will be vital to his title chances.

“As much as I believe in my own abilities on asphalt I can't compete with the knowledge some of the other guys have,” he said. “I know Freddy Loix will be very strong in Ypres, Jan Kopecky is going to be difficult to live with on the Czech round and Giandomenico Basso will be hard to beat in Sanremo.

“Therefore I have to capitalise on the new events starting with the Azores.”