21 year old Norwegian Andreas Mikkelsen claimed his maiden IRC stage victory on the opening leg of the Sata Rallye Açores Thursday evening. With his M-Sport Ford Fiesta S2000 supported with Hankook tires he won the Grupo Marques superspecial. Mikkelsen and his codriver Ola Floene finished the rally in 4th position, their best result in the IRC series so far.
Mikkelsen was third after Thursday’s first three stages with, equal on time with Bruno Magalhães. Juho Hänninen was only 0.2 s ahead in the front.
On Friday Mikkelsen dropped to 4th when he struggling with poor pacenotes made during the fog-hit reconnaissance.
On the last day of the rally, Andreas Mikkelsen survived a dramatic scare on stage 14 when he encountered a herd of cows in the middle of the road. Despite veering off the stage he was unable to avoid striking two cows, which left his M-Sport Ford Fiesta S2000 with extensive bodywork damage.
Mikkelsen said: “We were flat-out in sixth gear on a long straight. Over a big crest, 50 metres after the crest there was eight or 10 cows in the middle of the road and we just had to put the car into the ditch where we hit two of the cows and on the road again. It was a scary moment.”
The stage was cancelled and Mikkelsen’s car suffered extensive damage to the bodywork but he was able to continue the rally and eventually finished fourth despite his powersteering failing two stages from the end as a result of the damage to the car.
Mikkelsen said: “The goal was to be at the podium here. But after the dramatic on stage 14, I must be happy to get to the finish. After all this is our best result in the IRC series so far”.
Top ten Sata Rallye Açores
1 Bruno Magalhaes, Peugeot 207 S2000 2h34m00.4s
2 Kris Meeke, Peugeot 207 S2000 +1m00.1s
3 Juho Hanninen, Skoda Fabia S2000 +1m20.7s
4 Andreas Mikkelsen, M-Sport Ford Fiesta S2000 +4m45.6s
5 Ricardo Moura, Ralliart Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution IX +5m22.0
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