Speaking on Ulster Radio in Northern Ireland, Kris Meeke disclosed that the reason he did not compete in Rally Poland in 2017 was that he chose not to.

It had previously been believed that he had been dropped by his Citroen Racing team on account of unconvincing recent results.

“I got sidetracked for Poland. Ultimately it was my call. We talked and discussed a lot about it,” Meeke said.

“I wasn’t happy with the situation, but I needed to take a step back to allow everyone else to realise where the troubles with the C3 WRC were at. They got Andreas Mikkelsen in, they even got Sebastien Loeb to test the car, but everybody was giving the same feedback.

“It took a while for everyone to understand the issues that we had. It became a very difficult situation and to be honest I was the one that put my hand up and said I’d step back.

“Other drivers put their neck on the line, trying to get a result with a car that wasn’t right.

“What was probably my fault on the previous three events was I had continued to put my head on the chopping board. Looking back it was probably the right thing (for me) to do in the circumstances, but it’s never a nice situation.”

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