Perfect IRC start for champion Andreas

Skoda UK Motorsport’s Andreas Mikkelsen has made the perfect start to the defence of his Intercontinental Rally Challenge drivers’ title by leading the opening round of the 2012 series, the Sata Rallye Acores, at the end of Leg 1.

Co-driven by Ola Floene, Andreas set
fastest time in his factory-prepared Fabia S2000 on two of the day’s three stages, with Juho Hanninen (Skoda Motorsport) making it a Skoda whitewash with another fastest time. The two Skoda drivers are already 21.6 seconds ahead of the rest of the field, after only 16.54 miles (26.63 km) of competition.

After a demonstration City Stage in Ponta Delgada late last night, held in front of thousands of enthusiastic spectators, Rally Azores got underway with three gravel stages today.

The road conditions were considerably different to last summer’s event, as a wet winter had made the roads very slippery. Andreas collected a front left puncture on the opening Coroa de Mata (5.12 miles/8.25 km), but still set the fastest time to lead Hanninen by 3.2 seconds. Hanninen regained two seconds with fastest time on SS2, Sao Bras/Vila Franca, which had been shorted from 10.05 miles (16.18 km) to 4.02 miles (6.48 km).

Andreas and Hanninen then went head-to-head on the Grupo Marques super-special (1.36 mile/2.2 km), with the Skoda UK Motorsport driver winning by just 0.2 seconds – ensuring he finished Leg 1 in a 1.4 second lead.

Andreas said, “It’s been a good start to Rally Azores and, as expected, we’re having a close battle with Juho (Hanninen). We used today to find a good pace that we’re comfortable with and we’ll continue with that pace tomorrow. With the top five running in reverse order, we’ll start fifth on the road tomorrow and try to make sure that plays to our advantage. Today was a bit of a warm-up; tomorrow’s a long day and that’s when the proper rally starts.”

Tomorrow’s Leg 2 starts at 09.30 AM and contains six stages, including two runs over the event’s signature Sete Cidades stage, which runs around the rim of an extinct volcano. Evening flex-service brings the day to an end after 51.48 miles (82.85 km) of action.

Overall positions after SS3
1. Andreas Mikkelsen/Ola Floene (Skoda Fabia S2000) - 13 mins 53.7 secs
2. Juho Hanninen/Mikko Markkula (Skoda Fabia S2000) - +1.4 secs
3. Bryan Bouffier/Xavier Panseri (Peugeot 207 S2000) - +23 secs
4. Bruno Magalhaes/Carlos Magalhaes (Peugeot 207 S2000) - +29.9 secs
5. Sepp Wiegand/Timo Gottschalk (Skoda Fabia S2000) - +52 secs
6. Ricardo Moura/Sancho Eiro (Mitsubishi Lancer) - +53.7 secs

Posted in: Motor Sports,Skoda