Travel chaos disrupts Hanninen’s preparations

Travel disruption, caused by the dust cloud from the Icelandic volcano eruption, forced Juho Hanninen to miss his pre-Rally Islas Canarias test earlier this week.

Hanninen was due to fly to Czech Republic for the asphalt test, which had been scheduled to help the Finn reacclimatise to sealed-surface driving ahead of round four of the Intercontinental Rally Challenge, which takes place from 29 April-1 May.

However, he was forced to remain in his native Finland when he was unable to travel. Despite the set-back Hanninen said he was confident it wouldn’t impact on his chances of extending his IRC points’ lead.

"It’s never good when you don’t have enough preparation time but what can you do in this situation?" said Hanninen. "It will make things more difficult for sure but there will still be a small test on Monday of next week and a chance then to do some driving."