on the last corner before the finish of the rally stage, and you slide off the road, into a parking lot... whoa!

Kris Meeke won Guanajuato Rally Mexico on Sunday despite almost throwing victory away when he crashed off the road into a spectator car park less than a kilometre from the finish.

But just 750 metres from the end of the four-day event, a mistake plunged his Citro�n C3 through a hedge and into a spectator car park.

A disoriented Meeke drove around parked vehicles urgently searching for a way back onto the road. He eventually spied a hole in the hedge, regained the track and limped to the finish with a puncture and fan safety tape trailing from his car.

The clocks showed the Northern Irishman had won by 13.8sec, ending a miserable start to the season for Meeke and his Citro�n team. It was their first success of the year and Meeke leaped to sixth in the FIA World Rally Championship points.

�I got caught out on a bump after the jump at a fast right corner,� said Meeke. �I�m a lucky boy. That�s certainly one way to finish a rally and I didn�t need that.

�I was desperately trying to trying to find my way out of the parked cars and find a gap in the hedge.
 A lot of things went my way� � he added.

http://www.newspress.co.uk/public/ViewPressRelease.aspx?pr=70412&pr_ref=34547