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Juho Hanninen takes early lead on Czech Rally Zlin from Andreas Mikkelsen

Juho Hanninen took an early lead on the latest round of the Intercontinental Rally Challenge after going quickest on the opening stage of Czech Rally Zlin

The Finn blasted around the Zlin Superspecial in 7m03.4s in his factory Skoda to take a 0.5s advantage over Skoda UK's Andreas Mikkelsen.

However, Mikkelsen was not worried by the gap to the reigning champion as he opted to run a longer than optimum set of gear ratios because he believes it will make his Fabia 2000 better-suited to Saturday morning's stages.

Jan Kopecky and Freddy Loix made it an all-Skoda front four while Peugeot UK's Guy Wilks was the best of the drivers in anything other than Czech machinery in fifth. The Briton, who is 2.6s shy of the lead, said he had been too aggressive during the early part of the stage, but smoothed his driving out later on.

Peugeot youngsters Thierry Neuville and Bryan Bouffier were sixth and seventh quickest while the top 10 was rounded out by local drivers Roman Kresta (Skoda), Vaclav Pech (Mitsubishi) and Pavel Valousek (Peugeot).

It was a bad stage for both Patrik Sandell and Craig Breen, who were equal 21st overnight. Sandell was fearful of being penalised for a jumped start after being told to start by officials before the lights had turned green, while Breen had to drive cautiously after taking tyres that were too soft for the conditions.

Leading positions after SS1:

Pos  Driver             Team/Car                Time/Gap
 1.  Juho Hanninen      Skoda                    7m03.4s
 2.  Andreas Mikkelsen  Skoda UK                  + 0.5s
 3.  Jan Kopecky        Skoda                     + 1.1s
 4.  Freddy Loix        BFO Skoda                 + 2.2s
 5.  Guy Wilks          Peugeot UK (Kronos)       + 2.6s
 6.  Thierry Neuville   Peugeot Belux (Kronos)    + 5.3s
 7.  Bryan Bouffier     PH Peugeot                + 8.0s
 8.  Roman Kresta       Adell Mogul Skoda        + 10.7s
 9.  Vaclav Pech        Czech Team Mitsubishi    + 12.6s
10.  Pavel Valousek     Czech Team Peugeot       + 12.6s

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