Intercontinental Rally Challenge

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June 6, 2011 in Motorsport

Intercontinental Rally Challenge

MIKKELSEN MAKES IT 3 ŠKODAS IN TOP 4 IN UKRAINE

Andreas Mikkelsen set three fastest stage times and finished 4th on the Prime Yalta Rally in his Škoda UK Motorsport Fabia S2000 – just 57.3 seconds behind the event winner, Juho Hänninen, after losing an estimated two minutes with a puncture, two spins and a crash during the three day event!

For his outstanding never give up performance on the Ukrainian event, and in particularly his fight back after the puncture and his ingenuity in repairing the Fabia S2000 after his crash, Andreas received the Colin McRae IRC Flat Out Trophy. The recipient is selected by a three man judging panel consisting of Jimmy McRae, Gilbert Roy (Eurosport) and Jean-Pierre Nicolas (IRC).

It was a fantastic rally for Škoda. Victory sees Hänninen take the lead in the Intercontinental Rally Challenge, becoming the first driver to win seven rounds of the series, while his Škoda Motorsport team-mate Jan Kopecký was 3rd – ensuring that three Fabia S2000s finished in the top four. Škoda lead the Manufacturers’ series, while Hänninen and Kopecký are 1st and 2nd in the Drivers’ standings.

It was an impressive performance by Andreas, who set seven top three stage times on the 14 stage event, producing another great performance on asphalt. Co-driven by Ola Fløene, the 21-year old FIA Institute Young Driver Excellence Academy driver dropped from 4th to 8th after losing almost 90 seconds when he picked up a front right puncture on SS4. He began his charge back up the leaderboard by setting fastest time on the next stage, despite losing the brakes towards the end, a result of the previous stage puncture damaging the cooling system, which cost him over 15 seconds.

Andreas was faster over every stage when they were repeated in the afternoon, even with brake problems and a 5th gear high-speed spin on SS8, to end Day 2 back in 4th.

On Day 3, Andreas set fastest time on SS9 and SS11 to halve the gap to Kopecký to just 12.9 seconds, having started the day 25.6 seconds adrift. He was then enjoying a “perfect” SS12 and was on course for another fastest time when he spun backwards off the road three corners from the end of the stage, losing 20 seconds. Despite this, he was still sixth fastest on the stage – and 1.2 seconds quicker than he had been over the same stretch of road in the morning. Emergency repairs to the Fabia S2000 on the following road section saw Andreas tie the tow rope around a lamp post, in order to help pull the rear bodywork away from the rear right tyre!

With Kopecký now 22.3 seconds ahead and just two stages remaining, the brave fight for 3rd position was over – a fact confirmed by another spin on SS13. Fourth was still a magnificent achievement, and Andreas’ best result in this year’s IRC.

Andreas: “Performance-wise it’s been very good and the whole team has done a fantastic job. It’s also a great honour to be awarded the Colin McRae IRC Flat Out Trophy. Of course he's a big legend in rallying and definitely I figure I look up to, so this prize I really appreciate.

“We were a bit unlucky on this rally with a puncture on Day 2 and also on the last day when we slid off, because we were having a very good battle with Kopecký for third position. We had the most perfect stage, but two hundred metres from the finish line, on the last right hand corner, there was much more gravel on the corner than we had expected and the car slid out. We hit a small tree and lost about twenty seconds. On the second to last stage we had a spin as well.

“I really feel that the whole team deserves a podium because they are doing an incredible job, so hopefully that will come soon. For sure we definitely have the speed to be up there fighting, because our pace is really good. I learnt a lot this weekend, so has everybody, and we are there now.”

The next round of the Intercontinental Rally Challenge is the Geko Ypres Rally in Belgium (23-25 June).

Final positions

1. Juho Hänninen/Mikko Markkula (Škoda Fabia S2000)….2hr 27mins 06.6secs

2. Bryan Bouffier/Xavier Panseri (Peugeot 207 S2000)….+11.7secs

3. Jan Kopecký/Petr Starý (Škoda Fabia S2000)….+38.7secs

4. Andreas Mikkelsen/Ola Fløene (Škoda Fabia S2000)….+57.3secs

5. Guy Wilks/Phil Pugh (Peugeot 207 S2000)….+4min 00.4secs

6. Thierry Neuville/Nicolas Gilsoul (Peugeot 207 S2000)….+5mins 01.5secs

7. Toni Gardemeister/Tapio Suominen (Škoda Fabia S2000)….+7mins 59.3secs

8. Karl Kruuda/Martin Järveoja (Škoda Fabia S2000)….+10mins 01.3secs

9. Patrik Sandell/Staffan Parmander (Škoda Fabia S2000)….+18mins 08.9secs

10. Jean-Michael Raoux/Laurent Magat (Renault Clio R3)….+21mins 42.9secs