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Kris Meeke has pulled away from his rivals on the second loop of stages in the Rally Islas Canarias.

The reigning Intercontinental Rally Challenge champion left service with only a three-second gap back to the chasing Skodas of Jan Kopecky and Juho Hanninen.

But three straight stage wins for Peugeot UK driver Meeke, who was revelling in the car's handling after lunchtime set-up changes, mean he completed the loop 14s clear of Kopecky and 21s ahead of Hanninen - having pulled out 8s on SS5 alone.

Guy Wilks has been frustrated by his inability to keep up with the leaders on this rally. Unhappy with his Skoda UK Fabia's handling, he is now 41s behind Meeke and gradually being caught by Peugeot Portugal's Bruno Magalhaes, who has shown good pace since his transmission was changed at service and swiftly reclaimed fifth from Alberto Hevia.

Further back, new Kronos Peugeot signing Thierry Neuville has passed Spanish champion Sergio Vallejo for seventh.



Pos Driver Car Time/Gap 1. Kris Meeke Peugeot 56m16.2s 2. Jan Kopecky Skoda + 14.5s 3. Juho Hanninen Skoda + 21.9s 4. Guy Wilks Skoda + 41.2s 5. Bruno Magalhaes Peugeot + 52.5s 6. Alberto Hevia Skoda + 1m00.9s 7. Theirry Neuville Peugeot + 1m13.9s 8. Sergio Vallejo Ford + 1m20.0s 9. Franz Wittmann Peugeot + 1m38.2s 10. Jose Suarez Mitsubishi + 4m19.5s