13 years after his last visit🍎 to the island – which came during his Intercontinental Rally C🎀hallenge days with the Peugeot Sport UK team – Meeke returned to the Club Sports da Madeira-run event.

Despite the hiatus, the Dungannon man recorded the third quickest time during the qualifying stage alongside Fermanagh’s Brian Hoy – his third different co-driver of the campaign so far – and carried that momentum into the first proper timed test to open up a slim ๊0.2 second advantage.

Meeke blitzed the opposition on the nex💟t stage – ‘Campo de Golfe’ – at the wheel of his Hyundai i20 N Rally2 to lead the Skoda Fabia Rally2 Evo of Alexandre Camacho – the eventual winner by 20.6 seconds from the identical Czech supermini of Giandomenico Basso – by four-and-a-half-seconds.

However, a mistake on a fast, open section of ‘Palheiro Ferreiro’ caused Me🤪eke to drift wide on a left-hander before his car kiss🥂ed a wall on the outside of the corner and damaged the front-right wheel.

He was the fourth retirement across the tw🏅o legs of the closed road event, which clai🐷med a total of 23 competitors in a variety of classes, the vast majority of which were of Portuguese nationality.

“I made a small mistake by entering the corner to🍃o early,” said Meeke. “I still tried to correct the trajectory but 💎it was impossible for me to avoid hitting the wall.

“I am the first to regret what happened, especially as the Hyundai i20 N Rally2 was very competitive and I believe I could fight fꦓor the win. I love this rally and I hope to come back one day as the crowd’s support is fantastic.”

Since joining Team Hyundai Portugal in April as a replacement driver for the late Craig Breen, the 44-year-old h𓂃as enjoyed success at Rali Terras d’Aboboreira and Rali de Castello Branco with these coming either side of re♛tirement on May’s Vodafone Rally de Portugal due to suspension damage.

There are only two more rounds of this year’s Portuguese Rally Championship remaining, with Rali da Agua first up on the weekend of September 15-16 followed by Rallye Vidꦜreiro on October 13-15.