Only WRC title will beat Finland win, says Meeke
ByAutoSport
Updated 01/08/2016 at 12:37 GMT
Kris Meeke says his Rally Finland win ranks second only to becoming World Rally champion among his career goals.
British driver Kris Meeke and Irish co-driver Paul Nagle with their Citroen DS3 WRC during the second day of Neste Rally Finland of FIA World Rally Championship at Surkee special stage in Jyvaskyla, Finland July 29 2016.
Image credit: Reuters
He became the first Briton to take victory in the WRC's most famous gravel event with a dominant performance for the PH Sport-run Citroen team last weekend.
"For a WRC driver, winning Rally Finland is the ultimate goal before becoming world champion," Meeke said. "It's an incredible feeling to win on the greatest roads in the world.
"It will take a few days and weeks for it to properly sink in, but you dream that someday you could do something special in the World Rally Championship. In terms of rally wins I don't know how you can get much better than this."
Meeke is only contesting a handful of WRC events this year as Citroen focuses on 2017 preparations and insisted the DS3 had been barely touched since '15.
"The biggest compliment I've had this weekend is probably someone's comment that there's some 2017 parts on the DS3," Meeke joked.
"We had a pre-event test on Sunday where we did 150 kilometres and it's identical spec to last year.
"We tried different things on the test and we arrived back at the same thing."
The Northern Irishman has now won on two of his four WRC appearances this year and challenged for victory on the others, and said the confidence boost from that form was the biggest factor in his Finland win.
"The rally was different this year. I had another year under my belt," said Meeke.
"We've seen in Monte this year and Sweden and Portugal that my speed was good, my confidence was high and when you come to a rally where confidence is key, I think that made the difference.
"But the car's been exceptional. We know the DS3 worked very well here, especially on the wide roads. That gave me the confidence and I was able to do the times."
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