SS11: Delay for Mikkelsen puts Al-Attiyah clear

Andreas Mikkelsen’s audacious bid to catch Nasser Al-Attiyah and win the Cyprus Rally looks to be over after he picked up a puncture on his ŠKODA UK Motorsport Fabia Super 2000 on the 19.43-kilometre mixed-surface Prodromi stage.

Mikkelsen, who started the event with an unassailable lead in his chase for a second Intercontinental Rally Challenge title, lost almost two minutes stopping to change the damaged tyre. It means he now trails Al-Attiyah, in an M-Sport Ford Fiesta RRC, by 2m44.1s with two stages remaining.

Speaking to Colin Clark at the stage finish prior to learning of Mikkelsen’s delay, Al-Attiyah said: “We did a better time from the morning. He will be pushing but we must take care. We try to do our best but we see lots of smoke with the brakes overheating.”

Andreas Aigner impressed with the second fastest time in his Stohl Racing Subaru Impreza R4 STI. The Austrian was 0.1s quicker than ŠKODA Auto Deutschland’s Sepp Wiegand, who moves ahead of Cypriot Savvas Savva into fifth overall.

Hungarian privateer László Vizin is now up to eighth overall in his Eurosol Racing Team Fabia