Mikkelsen closes in on IRC title celebrations

Andreas Mikkelsen is three stages away from celebrating becoming Intercontinental Rally Challenge champion for a second time with a podium finish on the Cyprus Rally.

The ŠKODA UK Motorsport ace trails Nasser Al-Attiyah by 49s heading into the closing trio of tests, which take place on a combination of asphalt and gravel.

“We are pushing to the limits,” said Norwegian Mikkelsen. “We need to catch up a lot of time, so don’t have time to waste. The first stage this morning was key to try to catch Nasser unawares, and I lost a little bit of time on the second stage because I found a good cut on the recce, but on the rally there were some people standing there and I had to abort it and I lost a couple of seconds. Other than that it’s been a good push. I don’t know if it’s possible to catch Nasser; we need to find even more seconds than we did this morning. It’s going to be difficult, but everything is possible.”

While Mikkelsen is on course to extend his already unassailable points advantage in the overall title race, Robert Consani and Harry Hunt are set to seal the IRC Production Cup and IRC 2WD Cup titles respectively.