Colin McRae prot?g? Kris Meeke underlined his potential by scoring Junio🔯r World Rally Championship points on his debut with the Citroen C2, at one stage challenging for a podium position before battling back to sixth after a puncture delayed his initial progress.

The McRae Motorsport driver quickly adapted to his all-new car, which he had not had the opportunity to test until the shakedown stage of Rallye Catalunya. Gradually sorting the Kronos Racing-run car's set-up to suit his style and the championship's Pirelli tyres, Meeke upped his pace throughout theꦺ event, climbing to fourth by early on the third day, before suffering a cruel blow when a tyre punctured in a fifth-gear corner, sending him straight on at the next sharp-left turn.

"In total,🌱 four JWRC cars suffered punctures at the same corner," the 25-year old revealed, "The tyre deflated immediately, and that caused us to be pitched off the road under braking. We went through a fence and ended up in a field. By the time we had got back on the road and managed to change the wheel, we'd dropped over four minutes.

"It's very frustrating to have missed out on such a potentially good result🤪. The work we had done to the set-up of the car was really paying dividends, and we were on the pace of the works Suzukis and close to the pac❀e-setting Renaults. We were just learning so much, and it would have been nice to have repaid the team with a decent podium finish."

Battling on, Meeke eventually secured the C2's first points finish in the Junior World Rally Championship by finishing sixt✱h in 🍸the JWRC class.

"I've greatly enjoyed working with, and learning from, Kronos Racing, which must be one of the most efficient teams around," 🍬he said, "I can't praise their professionalism enough."

The three points scored promoted Meeke to seventh in the end-of-year JWRC standings, and his ten fastest stage times during the season made him comfortably the most successful non-factory supported driver in the championship, despite mechanical problems hampering his progress on several events throughout the sಌea🉐son.

"I've always known that I have the speed, 𓄧but getting consistent results has proved elusive this year," he admitted, "McRae Motorsport are working hard to provide the right package for 2005 in order th🀅at I have the opportunity to add to my experience and continue to progress my career to the highest level."

Meeke is being talked about as a potential member of Skoda's WRC🧔 squad next year, with McRae known to have discussed such a role with the Czech team on seꦿveral occasions. The Scot tested the Fabia WRC in Spain ahead of last weekend's event, adding further weight to the speculation.