Britain's Kris Meeke endured a frustrating outing on the Rally RACC Catalunya-Costa Daurada at the weekend, his second outing of the season in the World Rally Championship.
Meeke, who last competed in the WRC in Germany back in August, when he looked set to take the S1600 win until an electrical problem dropped him down the order in the penultimate stage, was plagued by issues in his Interspeed Racing Team-run Renault Clio R3 throughout the three-days.
Indeed he suffered a puncture just four kilometres into SS1 on Friday and then lost the use of his brakes by the end of the same test.
He then had more problems on day two, on the first run through the long 38.27 kilometre El Priorat test - SS7 - when his engine started cutting out. Further brake issues saw him spin and he lost another 30-40 seconds before re-starting.
Despite all of that however, he remarkably finished Saturday's action in the points in the J-WRC class, eighth overall.
Sunday though continued to be problematic and an alternator issue finally sidelined him for good in SS14, ending prematurely, what was his first run in the J-WRC since 2006.
"The data showed that we were full-throttle for 10 per cent longer than our rival, but still were dropping time," Meeke told his personal website. "It's not been a good weekend at the office!"
