Hänninen back in the IRC in Ukraine

Juho Hänninen will return to the Intercontinental Rally Challenge on the Prime Yalta Rally, which gets underway in the Ukraine on Thursday (2 June).

The defending champion moved to the top of this year’s IRC drivers’ classification after winning Rally Islas Canarias El Corte Inglés in mid-April alongside co-driver Mikko Markkula.

After skipping the last round in Corsica, Hänninen slipped down the order. However, he’ll be aiming to make up some of the lost ground when he contests the sealed-surface rally this week in his factory Škoda Fabia Super 2000, which is being supported by Škoda’s Ukrainian importer.

“It’s great that Mikko and I are back in the IRC again,” said Finn Hänninen. “But I don’t have a clue what the [stages in Yalta] will look like. In this respect, this rally will surely be a big challenge for all the teams to take part. I’d love to win there, that’s for sure, but it will no doubt be very difficult. The last few events have showed clearly that the quality of [the] IRC is improving all the time.”