SS3: Mikkelsen maintains flying start in Sicily

Andreas Mikkelsen has extended his lead of Targa Florio-Rally Internazionale Di Sicilia with the fastest time on stage three and said afterwards he can go even quicker when the stage is repeated this afternoon.

Mikkelsen, Intercontinental Rally Challenge champion in 2011, set a time of 8m44.8s through the 13.70-kilometre Collesano stage in his ŠKODA UK Motorsport Fabia Super 2000. He was 1.1s quicker than fellow ŠKODA runner Jan Kopecký and now leads the Czech by 1.7s in the overall classification heading to service in Termini Imerese.

“I did a clean stage with no problems, not pushing to the absolute limit,” said Mikkelsen. “We’ll check out the pacenotes in service to see if we can go a little bit faster on the next time through this stage.”

Umberto Scandola was the fastest Italian driver in third despite reporting the rear of his Fabia was sliding too much. He moves into fifth overall. Giandomenico Basso was 5.5s down on stage winner Mikkelsen in his M-Sport Ford Fiesta RRC with Paolo Andreucci, the six-time Targa Florio winner, 7.8s slower than the flying Norwegian for Peugeot Italia.

Ivan Ferrarotti reported having to reverse after making a mistake at a chicane in his Renault Mégane RS. Rashid Al-Ketbi also experienced a similar delay in his Skydive Dubai Rally Team Fabia.

Sicilian Andrea Nucita, a contender for IRC 2WD Cup honours, said he’d been able to cure the fuel pressure problem that slowed him on today’s first stage.

Stage four, Targa 2, gets underway at 12:42hrs local time.