The 2017 Mexico winner had a series of spins in last weekend's event and put his Citroen on its side on the final morning before finishing on the podium.

He felt he should have done better, having started the event in a favourable seventh place in the start order.

Asked to describe his rally, Meeke told Motorsport.com: "It's been s****. Too many errors from me this weekend.

"I had the car, I had the road position and the pace to win and I wasn't able to convert it.

"I'm frustrated as hell, but if I'm frustrated as hell with third place that's not a bad sign. I've got no excuses here."

Despite his tough weekend, Meeke still sits fourth in the championship standings, three points behind Andreas Mikkelsen, but 20 and 24 adrift of Thierry Neuville and Sebastien Ogier respectively.

Loeb "surprised" by pace on return

Meeke's teammate for the weekend Sebastien Loeb led the rally on his WRC return until picking up a puncture. He finished fifth.

The nine-time champion admitted he had "no idea" where he would stand in the pecking order ahead of the Mexico weekend, but said his speed in Mexico came as a "nice surprise".

"Coming into the rally, I felt that testing had gone well, but I obviously had no certainty about my level," said Loeb. "So it was a nice surprise to be on the pace!

"I'm just a bit frustrated that I wasn't able to test myself properly against the others right to the end because of the puncture. In any case, it was a very good weekend and that was the initial aim of this comeback.

"I hope I can now go on to get a good result in Corsica, even though I'll still have quite a few things to refamiliarise myself with."