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IRC Cyprus: Nasser Al-Attiyah wins on IRC swansong event

Nasser Al-Attiyah claimed victory in the final Intercontinental Rally Challenge event as champion Andreas Mikkelsen's gallant Cyprus Rally charge came unstuck

Mikkelsen had lost two minutes with a puncture and suspension damage on Saturday morning, but still did not give up on victory.

The Skoda UK driver reduced Al-Attiyah's lead to 1m30s by the end of leg one, despite a second puncture, and then relaunched his chase on Sunday morning.

A hat-trick of stage wins on the first loop brought Mikkelsen to within 49s of Al-Attiyah, who was losing time running first on the road, with three stages to go. But yet another puncture on the first stage after service cost Mikkelsen a further two minutes.

That left Autotek Ford driver Al-Attiyah free to repeat his 2010 Cyprus win by a commanding margin.

Mikkelsen had the ample consolation of officially claiming a second straight IRC title - a result guaranteed from the outset as remaining rivals Jan Kopecky and Juho Hanninen were not entered for the decider.

He celebrated by allowing co-driver Ola Floene, set to retire after the event, to take the wheel for the final stage of the rally and the series.

Tommi Makinen Subaru duo Toshi Arai and Jarkko Nikara were third and fourth, despite multiple dramas for both on the rough surface.

Sepp Wiegand rejoined following his Saturday problems and finished fifth.

Robert Consani arrived in Cyprus leading both the Production and 2WD Cups after a dual-campaign.

Early clutch failure meant Consani lost the latter title to Harry Hunt, but he still became the final IRC Production champion.

Read AUTOSPORT's farewell to the IRC and, and its look ahead to to the series' European Rally Championship successor.

Leading finishers after SS13:

Pos  Driver             Team/Car                        Time/Gap
 1.  Nasser Al-Attiyah  Autotek Ford                  3h16m25.2s
 2.  Andreas Mikkelsen  Skoda UK                       + 3m35.3s
 3.  Toshi Arai         Makinen Subaru                + 10m07.1s
 4.  Jarkko Nikara      Makinen Subaru                + 12m42.1s
 5.  Sepp Wiegand       Skoda Deutschland             + 14m00.6s
 6.  Savvas Savva       Telsa Mitsubishi              + 15m15.1s
 7.  Armin Kremer       Subaru                        + 16m52.4s
 8.  Laszlo Vizin       Skoda                         + 19m00.2s
 9.  Harry Hunt         I-Cars Citroen                + 19m12.1s
10.  Stavros Antoniou   Antonis & Stavros Mitsubishi  + 28m28.6s

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