Mikkelsen fastest in Sanremo shakedown

Andreas Mikkelsen has set a blistering pace to go fastest on shakedown for Rallye Sanremo, round nine of the Intercontinental Rally Challenge.

Driving a ŠKODA UK Motorsport Fabia Super 2000, the 22-year-old recorded a time of 1m53.4s through the 2.7-kilometre practice stage from the villages of Pompeiana to Castellaro.

The Norwegian’s best time was almost two seconds faster than the time recorded by Peugeot France driver Bryan Bouffier. Peugeot Sport Portugal’s Bruno Magalhães was a strong third fastest. Umberto Scandola was the leading Italian driver in fifth overall in his M-Sport Ford Fiesta S2000.

“You couldn’t do any set-up work on the shakedown stage because it was so different to any other stage on the rally, so we just used it to make sure everything works on the car and for me to get a good feeling,” said Mikkelsen.

Rallye Sanremo gets underway on Friday afternoon with the first of 13 stages.

Top 10 shakedown times (provisional)

1 Andreas Mikkelsen/Ola Fløene (ŠKODA Fabia S2000) 1m53.4s
2 Bryan Bouffier/Xavier Panseri (Peugeot 207 S2000) 1m55.2s
3 Bruno Magalhães/Paulo Grave (Peugeot 207 S2000) 1m55.4s
4 Guy Wilks/Phil Pugh (Peugeot 207 S2000) 1m55.6s
5 Umberto Scandola/Guido D’Amore (M-Sport Ford Fiesta S2000) 1m55.7s
6 Freddy Loix/Frédéric Miclotte (ŠKODA Fabia S2000) 1m55.9s
7 Jan Kopeckyý/Petr Starý (ŠKODA Fabia S2000) 1m56.1s
8 Thierry Neuville/Nicolas Gilsoul (Peugeot 207 S2000) 1m56.6s
9 Pierre Campana/Sabrina de Castelli (Peugeot 207 S2000) 1m56.6s
10 Toni Gardemeister/Tapio Suominen (ŠKODA Fabia S2000) 1m57.6s