The Northern Irishman’s Citroen rolled 14 times after he hit a rock on the outside of a sixth-gear right-hander on the second run at Los Gigantes on Saturday.

Meeke and co-driver Paul Nagle were taken to the medical centre for a check up after what had been a violent accident.

It was their second roll of the week, after their C3 WRC was thrown into the air as a result of an unexpected compression on the opening day.

Talking to Motorsport.com, Meeke said: "It was a big one, the biggest. I remember everything.

"We had: "Flat right, 200 and tightens minus late," in our notes and basically it was a flat out corner that tightens a wee bit at the end so you have to brake in the middle.

"It’s easy flat, but just at the last minute I moved maybe four or five centimetres to the left to get a line, but from the [other drivers’] lines, you could see I turned in at the same point.

"Then it just started to understeer, but I was like: "I’m fine, I’m fine…" but there was a small rock on the outside covered in sand. We hit that and bang.

"I have made a lot of mistakes in my time and I’ve made errors in brave places where I shouldn’t have been brave, but what ended up happening this time, I don’t think I deserved that.

"People might say: "What were you doing having an accident in superally?"

"But it wasn’t a brave accident, or a stupid one or a commitment one… But anyway, I take that one on the chin.

"It was my fault, but Paul and I are fine. The medical team checked us over and recommended we went for a [CT] scan which we did – it’s always sensible to do these things, but everything was grand.

"There’s a mandatory check before Portugal, but that’s just a procedural thing."

Meeke’s event ended in dramatically different circumstances to the first ever WRC win he celebrated last time he competed in Argentina two years ago.

Despite the crash, there were positives from the pace Meeke showed in South America, with two fastest times on Saturday, he was never out of the top three on gravel.