Meeke ruled out of Monte by road collision
ByAutoSport
Published 21/01/2017 at 18:07 GMT
Kris Meeke's nightmare start to the 2017 World Rally Championship season continued on Saturday evening when he was ruled out of the Monte Carlo Rally by a road accident.
Eurosport
Image credit: Eurosport
The Northern Irishman's C3 WRC was making the journey from service in Gap to the event's Sunday base in Monaco when it was hit by another car.
The Citroen team has confirmed Meeke has had to retire.
Even if Meeke had made it to the principality, the team could not have helped him fix the car as there is no service before Sunday's four stages.
A Citroen communication said: "While driving on the road section between Gap and Monaco, Kris Meeke and Paul Nagle's Citroen C3 WRC was hit by another vehicle.
"With the right-rear wheel damaged, the car was unable to continue driving and the crew has been forced to retire from what is proving to be a decidedly unpredictable rally."
Meeke was running second when he retired on Friday after damaging the suspension.
He rejoined under Rally2 for Saturday but dropped a further 25 minutes fixing an ignition problem on SS9 and was classified 38th prior to the road incident.
Team principal Yves Matton added: "After the efforts made, it's tough to see Kris retire for such a stupid reason".
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