Skoda ace Hänninen eyes IRC crown

Juho Hänninen admits his impressive start to the Intercontinental Rally Challenge season has put him in a strong position to win the coveted drivers’ crown.

Hänninen, from Finland, moved into a seven-point title lead following his second-place finish on Rally Islas Canarias last week.

The factory Škoda Motorsport driver has finished in the podium on the first four IRC events of the season and won Rally Argentina back in March.

He said: “We have a good situation with the points but I don’t think so much to that because there is still a long way to go until the end of the season. We have more points now than we did for all of 2009 but we still have to think rally by rally and not get carried away.”

Hänninen also pointed to the threat defending IRC champion Kris Meeke posed, adding: “Okay he is far behind in the points but we know how fast he is and I believe he will be strong by the end of the year.”