After his impressive performance on the Stormont Super Special, which left Kris Meeke third overall just behind the current and former World Champions, Meeke suffered badly from his road position on Leg one.

Running 20th on the road, Meeke struggled with the mud pulled out by the drivers in front, but still managed to run seventh overall, just 20s behind former World Champion Petter Solberg in a similar Subaru WRC.

A lose turbo pipe on SS5 dropped the Dungannon man a further 90 seconds, but then the conditions finally caught Meeke out on SS7. Despite getting the car back to next service, the geometry of the car out not be guaranteed for Leg two, and Meeke decided to withdraw from the event.

"If the car is not going to be 100%, and with the overall result out-the-window, it would have been impossible for me compete with the guys at the front," Meeke stated on his personal website.

"In addition, our road position, if anything, would have been worse than day one, and I could not afford to hit the car again. If you look at the attrition rate, and the calibre of drivers the conditions have claimed, it has to go down as one of the trickiest rallies of in the calendar," Meeke continued. "I'm slightly disappointed that our efforts behind the wheel did not reflect in the time sheets, and maybe I under-estimated the disadvantage of running this far down the order, but I gave it my best shot."

"I can take some consolation from our Stormont Super Special Stage... but not much!"