Juho Hanninen leads Ypres Rally while Andreas Mikkelsen goes off

Skoda driver Hanninen has led the event, round six of the 2012 Intercontinental Rally Challenge, from the outset, steadily edging away from Mikkelsen (Skoda UK) through the opening stages.

The gap was up to 11s before Mikkelsen slid into a ditch on stage five, dropping a minute and falling to fifth place. He rejoined in front of Loix, to the frustration of the Belgian, who felt running in Mikkelsen's wake cost him several seconds. Ypres is Loix's first IRC appearance of the season, and after several seasons in Skodas, he is driving the 2C-run Peugeot that he is using in France this year.

Loix's countryman Pieter Tsjoen (Wevers Skoda) is now up to third, while Mikkelsen has already reclaimed fourth place from Patrik Flodin after the Solberg Ford overshot a corner on the evening's final stage.

The rally will be decided over a mammoth Saturday itinerary that features 12 stages running across 12 hours from mid-morning to night time.

Leading positions after SS6:

Pos  Driver             Team/Car             Time/Gap
 1.  Juho Hanninen      Skoda                46m42.3s
 2.  Freddy Loix        2C Peugeot            + 26.8s
 3.  Pieter Tsjoen      Wevers Skoda        + 1m00.6s
 4.  Andreas Mikkelsen  Skoda UK            + 1m14.0s
 5.  Patrik Flodin      Solberg Ford        + 1m29.0s
 6.  Michal Solowow     Cersanit Peugeot    + 1m52.1s
 7.  Mathias Viaene     Atlantic Peugeot    + 2m12.6s
 8.  Oleksandr Saliuk   Ukraine Ford        + 2m25.4s
 9.  Robert Barrable    CA1 Skoda           + 3m03.2s
10.  Andreas Aigner     Stohl Subaru        + 3m19.1s