It's almost a year from the moment the World Rally Championship stood still. The moment news broke that Kris Meeke had been sacked.

A shunt in Portugal prompted one of Citroen's most bizarre press releases ever - it claimed to be dropping Meeke essentially for his own good - and over the following weeks the Northern Irishman's career was dissected, his sporting obituary written.

There was, the rallying world believed, no way back.