SS1: Birthday boy Mikkelsen leads in Ypres

After Andreas Mikkelsen, who is celebrating his 23rd birthday today, has gone fastest on the opening stage of the Geko Ypres Rally, round six of the Intercontinental Rally challenge.

Reigning IRC champion Mikkelsen, in a ŠKODA UK Motorsport Fabia Super 2000, was 0.8s faster than former IRC title-winner Juho Hänninen, who reported a significant amount of mud and water on the 14.30-kilometre Dikkebus test.

“I was trying to enjoy the driving but it was quite slippery out there, there’s a little bit of mud but nothing to worry about,” said Mikkelsen.

Hänninen added: “There was a lot of still water on the road, it was not easy to push.”

Seven-time event winner Freddy Loix was third fastest, 1.2s adrift of Mikkelsen’s pace in his Peugeot 207 Super 2000. “It wasn’t so bad but we lost a bit on the bumpy parts,” said Loix.

Pieter Tsjoen said he made a number of mistakes with his gear selection in his ŠKODA Fabia S2000, while Patrik Flodin admitted to adopting a cautious approach in his Petter Solberg Engineering M-Sport Ford Fiesta S2000 on his Ypres debut.

Robert Barrable said he chose a tyre compound that was too soft for the mainly dry conditions. Jasper Van den Heuvel, one of the favourites for IRC Production Cup honours, said the tyres on his Ralliart Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution X took too long to warm up.

Stage two, Westouter, goes live at 17:31hrs local time.