Mikkelsen praised despite Mecsek crash

Andreas Mikkelsen has been praised following his standout performance on last week’s Canon Mecsek Rallye, despite crashing out of the lead of the Intercontinental Rally Challenge round.

The SKODA UK-backed driver was two stages from the finish when he skated off the road on a patch of loose gravel. He had led from the opening stage of the event and set a number of impressive stage times in the Fabia Super 2000 he shares with fellow Norwegian Ola Floene.

SKODA Motorsport boss Michal Hrabanek, whose driver Jan Kopecky took victory in Hungary following Mikkelsen’s crash, said: “This event was very dramatic until the end. We are very sorry for Andreas because he was so near achieving a great result.”

Kopecky added: “Andreas certainly deserved to win here, because he was fastest of all of us. On the other hand, we had good luck, one of the things you need in rallying.”

Speaking about his crash, Mikkelsen said: “We had the perfect weekend up until stage 13. We had led from the start but when we hit the gravel there was no grip at all and we slid off the road in sixth gear and hit a tree.”