JWRC: Meeke the 'comeback kid' takes German win.

Britain's Kris Meeke showed real class in the FIA Junior World Rally Championship category on the Rallye Deutschland at the weekend, fighting back to take victory with the Citroen C2 S1600.

Meeke began the event on Friday by storming off into the lead, before brake problems dropped him down the order. On Saturday he lost further ground in the first test of the day as well, when a puncture cost him even more time and left him eighth overall, 2 minutes 33 seconds off class leader, Bernd Casier. Meeke though then proceeded to obliterate his rivals and stormed back to end the day 0.6 seconds up on Casier's Renault Clio. Heading into the final day on Sunday he set three fastest stages times out of a possible four and ended the event 40 seconds up on Caiser.

"Given the conditions, I had no intention of taking any risks," said the Ulsterman. "Even so, we started the day at a good pace - not too fast. Our time in the first stage was good for our confidence and we decided to stay at the same speed for the remaining tests."

Meeke thus secured the second JWRC win of his career, after his maiden triumph back in 2005 at the Rallye Monte Carlo: "It's a great feeling," he stated after the finish ceremony. "Sunday's win is a big morale booster and puts us in a better position as the championship enters its final phase. There are six drivers split by just ten points and the title will be decided in the last three rounds of the series. It's up to us now to follow up this weekend's performance with another top finish in Finland this coming week."

Casier despite having lost out on the win was pleased to take second after a number of issues on the final day: "This morning, we had a lot of problems. I am happy having made it through," he confirmed.

Pavel Valousek meanwhile snatched third in the final test, after a day long fight with Meeke's Citroen C2 team-mate, Julien Pressac. Valousek was quickest through the final test in his Suzuki Swift, to edge out Pressac by around 3 seconds.

"It's so frustrating not to have achieved our objective and to have lost third place in the very last stage," said Pressac at the finish. "Yet again, I've learnt so much and it's good to have experience of this sort of challenging terrain with constant switches from dry to wet and back to dry again, not to mention the dirt dragged onto the road by the WRC runners. It's exactly this sort of experience that will enable me to progress further."

Further-down the order, Martin Prokop ended up fifth, just ahead of fellow Citroen C2 runner, Aaron Burkart. Burkart lost around two minutes on day two with two punctures, but the German was still happy to take sixth place, his third points finish on the trot.

"Losing time was bad enough, but the real problems of incidents like that is that you lose your rhythm and it's hard to find it again," he stated. "We were lucky in some ways though, because it could have easily have been the end and put us out. If you look at it that way, we were fortunate, as we were able to go on and most importantly, finish the rally."

Fatih Kara was next up in seventh in his Renault Clio S1600, while Luca Betti rounded out the top eight and took the final drivers' point, with Conrad Rautenbach ninth - both also in Renault Clio's.

Barry Clark and Michal Kosciuszko were the only other two runners classified at the finish in the JWRC, eleven of the thirteen that started the round having made it through to the end.

2003 JWRC champion, Brice Tirabassi and Kalle Pinomaki were the two retirees, the former crashing out near the end of day one, while mechanical issues sidelined the latter in SS9 on Saturday. Tirabassi's off though was quite a sizeable one when he lost it under braking in SS7 and hit a tree. After the impact, he complained of pain to his cervical vertebrae and he was airlifted to hospital in Trier for tests: "It's nothing serious, just strained muscles. It will probably take me a few days to get over it," said the Citroen C2 ace on Friday after his release from the hospital.

Citroen however have since confirmed that he will not be fit enough to compete in Finland, the next round in the JWRC, which gets underway this coming week. As such his place in the PH Sport JWRC line-up will be taken by Fabien Fiandino - Fiandino, who competes in this year's French series with a C2, will have the task of giving the Citroen C2-R2 its maiden outing at the JWRC level.