Mikkelsen shines in Rallye de France

Norwegian young rising star Andreas Mikkelsen impresses when he won nine out of 19 special stages in the S2000 category in his visit to the WRC and Rallye de France this weekend.

The regular Ford Fiesta IRC driver was behind the wheel of a Skoda Fabia S2000 run by the Skoda Rally Team Italy in France. 21 year old Mikkelsen and his co driver Ola Fløene shines in the rain and cloudy weather in the Alsace region. After seven stages on the first day of the rally he took the lead in the S2000 category despite being the last car on the road. He took the lead by, 0,1 second ahead of his fellow countryman Henning Solberg. But on the last stage on Friday he got mechanical problems with his Skoda. He lost about 1 minute and 10 seconds on the stage.

The team had a lot of work to do on the overnight service in Strasbourg. But the car was fixed and Mikkelsen continued his brilliant drive on Saturday. He won more stages, and climbed to 4th position in the S2000 class after stage 14. But again he suffered technical problems, and on Saturday evening he lost more than seven minutes.

The car was repaired again and on Sunday he Mikkelsen was back on the winning track. He won two of the last day’s three stages.

The Norwegian pair finished 7th in the S2000 category.

Andreas Mikkelsen says: “I am very happy with my driving and the car on the stages we didn’t have any problems. We had good speed, and I really enjoyed the car and the rally. Unfortunately we had too much trouble to keep up with Henning (Solberg) in the fight for the win. But we will be back.”

Manager Erik Veiby says: “We came here to see where Andreas and Ola are compared to the SWRC drivers. I think we got a very good answer. They did an impressive job.”

Next rally for Andreas Mikkelsen and Ola Fløene will be the IRC event Rally of Scotland in two weeks time. Then they will be back in their Ford Fiesta S2000 again.