Mikkelsen’s Monte ends early

With seven scores from 12 rounds counting towards the title, Andreas Mikkelsen’s challenge for the Intercontinental Rally Challenge (IRC) remains unaffected, despite retiring from the opening round of the series, Rallye Monte Carlo, today.

With all his strongest IRC events ahead of him, Andreas wanted to learn the famous Alpine stages and get some competitive miles under his belt in the Škoda UK Motorsport Fabia S2000. The notoriously changeable Rallye Monte Carlo conditions sprang a surprise, however, as the opening day’s stages were completely dry and free of snow and ice – exactly opposite to the conditions experienced on the majority of the team’s pre-event testing schedule.

Running second on the road, Andreas and co-driver Ola Fløene set off into SS1, but at a tightening right hand corner near the start, the car ran wide and hit a small stone wall.

Unluckily, the impact damaged the rear left suspension and punctured the rear left tyre. With almost all of the 22.9 mile (36.87km) Le Moulinon-Antraigues stage remaining, Andreas stopped to replace the wheel. A bolt on the upright had sheared and with the new tyre rubbing against the bodywork, the replacement tyre deflated and he finished the stage on three wheels, losing over nine and a half minutes.

With only tyre changes allowed in service between SS1 and 2 at Vals les Bains (where just two mechanics can change tyres, while the crew can work on the car with only the equipment carried on board), Andreas was unable to repair the damage sufficiently to safely attempt the following Burzet-St Martial stage, which at 25.51 miles (41.06kms) in length was the longest of the rally. There was no option but to withdraw from the event and with no Superally, Andreas’ first Rallye Monte Carlo was sadly over.

“Our plan was to try and reach the finish and gain experience of the Rallye Monte Carlo, but it didn’t quite go to plan”, he said. “At the first proper right hand corner, where I had to brake and turn in hard, there was no grip and the car slid wide. I had warmed the tyres up really well before the stage, so I was really surprised that they had cooled down so quickly, after we’d been stopped at the stage start control for just three minutes. The result was that we hit a small stone wall and damaged the suspension, and despite our best efforts to repair the car were we unable to continue.”

“I’m obviously very disappointed, but championship-wise it’s not so bad. We weren’t pushing to score many points in Monte Carlo, so this has not put us behind in our overall plan. We have to take what’s happened on the chin, pick ourselves up and come out fighting again in Gran Canarias”, he concluded.

The rally continues tomorrow before the finish in Monaco early Saturday morning, while Škoda UK Motorsport’s next IRC outing will be Round 2, which has just been confirmed as Rally Islas Canarias El Corte Ingles (14-16 April).