Citroen drop Kris Meeke for the rest of the WRC season

Kris Meeke has been dropped by the Citroen World Rally team for the rest of the championship in 2018.
The French manufacture have removed the Co Tyrone driver and navigator Paul Nagle from their line up due to “an excessively high number of crashes”.
The latest crash came just last weekend in Portugal where Meeke was airlifted to hospital for checks.
Citroen team principal Pierre Budar said Meeke’s accidents meant he had decided to change the line-up on “safety” grounds.
Last year he was sidelined for a time after a poor start to the 2017 championship.
The Citroen statement on withdrawing Meeke and Nagle from WRC.
Due to an excessively high number of crashes, some of which were particularly heavy and could have had serious consequences with regard to the crew’s safety, and given that the risks involved were unjustified by the sporting stakes at play, Citroën Racing WRT has decided to terminate the participation of Kris Meeke and Paul Nagle in the 2018 WRC.
The decision becomes effective from the 2018 Rally Italia Sardegna and we will shortly be announcing the team’s line-up of crews for the remainder of the 2018 season. The entries of C3 WRCs for Craig Breen / Scott Martin and Mads Ostberg /Torstein Eriksen still stand for Sardinia.
Pierre Budar: “This wasn’t an easy decision to make because it effects a driver and a co-driver, but it is largely founded on safety issues which come under my preoccupations as Team Principal. We have consequently chosen to make this decision as a preventive measure.”