SS7/8: Kopecký slashes Mikkelsen’s lead

Jan Kopecký made it a clean sweep of the second loop of stages on the opening leg of the Canon Mecsek Rally, cutting Andreas Mikkelsen´s lead to single figures.

Making the best use of his early starting slot as the light quickly faded, Kopecký brought his ŠKODA Motorsport Fabia S2000 through Pécsvárad just 3.1s slower than his first run.

"Andreas pushed hard this morning so now we have to catch up," he said. "We will see, this stage is a bit slower than in the morning because there is more loose gravel."

Mikkelsen lost three seconds to his rival in the stage: "It was very dark, I think Jan had slightly brighter conditions. I didn’t want to make a mistake so I was quite careful. There’s a long way to go in the rally."

Freddy Loix was third fastest, 7.2s off Kopecký’s time, and frustrated that further set-up changes on his car had failed to yield improvements.

Thierry Neuville ended the day third overall in the Team Peugeot Belgium-Luxembourg 207 S2000, though he dropped a further 9.5s to Kopecký in the final stage. "It’s not so bad," he said. "On this stage I had some problems with the lights and I couldn’t see the road. I didn’t want to damage the car on the last stage of the day. Tomorrow we go on more attack!"

The SS8 has been cancelled due to safety reasons.