With Citroen Racing looking for Drivers for next years line up, and to score important manufacture points for this year Championship, they turned to Brit Driver Kris Meeke.

Citroen Abu Dhabi put Meeke into a seat for Rally Finland, giving the irishman a chance to show what he can do on the World Stage despite being out of WRC competition for almost 2 years. And Meeke put in impressive performances for the Team boss, who was impressed with his 4th place on the event. Even though Meeke Crashed out on the final day.

This was enough to prove he had what it takes to take on the best, so with Citroen Drivers struggling for results, Team boss Matton decided to replace Sordo with Meeke for Rally Australia.

Matton set him just one goal. Finish the Rally and score some manufacture points so that Citroen can keep up with the fearless Volkswagen team.

On the first stage of saturday afternoon, Kris meeke failed to do that and crashed heavily. His 2nd chance, gone with a 2nd crash, both are reported to be ok.

Autosport.com reported that; While the team cannot confirm the nature of the accident, both Meeke and co-driver Chris Patterson are known to be out of the car and uninjured.

Citroen team principal Yves Matton said: “I can tell you nothing, because we have not been able to reach them. We don’t know anything, nobody has seen the car.”

The Northern Irish driver was making his debut with the official Citroen team, replacing Dani Sordo for the Coffs Harbour-based event.

“At service this afternoon I told Kris to keep the pace, to stay not too far from Thierry [Neuville] and we would see tomorrow whether we try to catch him or not,” said Matton.

“For sure, I am not happy. He did not do what I asked him. This is just the opposite what I ask him.

“Yes, he did a good job before this, like he did in Finland until 10 kilometres before the end [when he crashed].”

Source: Autosport.com

Here is what Kris Meeke had to say about his crash on soundcloud, by Citroen Racing – http://soundcloud.com/citroen-racing/rally-australia-kris-meeke