SS11: Mikkelsen closes on Sibiu glory with ninth stage victory

Andreas Mikkelsen is one stage away from winning the Sibiu Rally after completing the penultimate stage of the Intercontinental Rally Challenge event with his lead firmly intact.

Mikkelsen completed the second run of the Șanta Max test in a time of 13m56.0s, which was 14.0s faster than Patrik Flodin for his ninth stage win of the rally. “We tried to be as clean as possible all the time, not driving over any rocks and being very safe,” said Mikkelsen, who reported a small delay on the previous stage following a puncture.

Flodin said: “We took it steady because it was so rough and that’s why the time was a little bit slow.”

François Delecour completed stage 11 – and the previous test – with a broken front-left shock absorber on his Munaretto Sport Peugeot 207 Super 2000. He was 2m26s slower than Mikkelsen.

Valentin Porcisteanu reported a bent right-rear suspension arm on his Ralliart Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution X, which caused his car to slide excessively. IRC Production Cup leader Vitaliy Puskhar also completed the stage with some suspension damage, albeit with the fourth fastest time behind Romanian driver Dan Girtofan.