SS10: Drama as Mikkelsen and Hanninen hit trouble

Day two of Barum Czech Rally Zlín has got off to a dramatic start with leader Juho Hänninen suffering a spin and defending Intercontinental Rally Challenge champion Andreas Mikkelsen stopping twice with two punctures.

Mikkelsen, who had been in third but slips down to at least 10th place following his extensive delay, said: “It was going into a junction, I just took some extra space, went over a kerb and it must have been big enough to get a puncture on both wheels. I thought I would be okay but we needed to stop two times because of this. I changed one but then had to stop again. It was not a good stage.”

The Norwegian, in a ŠKODA UK Motorsport Fabia Super 2000, was the only one of the leading trio to carry two spares, a decision he will be thankful of now. He had left morning service in Otrokovice with medium compound slick tyres with a ‘w’ cut to cope with the damp conditions in the forest areas and soft compound slick tyres, again with a ‘w’ cut at the rear.

Hänninen, running on hard compound slick tyres, reported spinning close to the stage start, which meant he had to reverse before he could continue. His lead over ŠKODA Motorsport team-mate Jan Kopecký, who won the stage, is now down to 5.2s. Hänninen was 6.2s slower than Kopecký through the 21.40-kilometre Halenkovice test.

“It was very tricky because it was raining quite a lot from the middle of the stage,” said the Czech ace, who is running on medium compound slick tyres. “There was fog and it was dark and you were not able to see the road.”

Tomáš Kostka said he elected not to push due to the slippery nature of the stage and the lack of visibility under tree cover. He was fifth quickest behind Roman Kresta.

Andreas Aigner, the IRC Production Cup leader who is running first on the road in his Subaru Impreza R4 STI, said: “It was good. The beginning was quite slippery in the forests. Our tyre choice was too hard but it was getting warmer and foggy for the last two or three kilometres. It’s raining in the stage a little but not too much.”

Robert Barrable said he regretted not attaching the lamp pod to his ŠKODA Ireland Fabia due to it being dark under tree cover. His margin over the chasing Jaromír Tarabus in the battle for sixth place is now down to 3.9s. Tarabus impressed with the third fastest time. Meanwhile, Karl Kruuda reported a lack of confidence on his mixed compound slicks.