Andreas Mikkelsen stretches his lead on the Mecsek Rally
Andreas Mikkelsen is pulling away from Jan Kopecky again on the Mecsek Rally halfway through the final day of the Intercontinental Rally Challenge's debut in Hungary
Kopecky's domination of the second half of leg one brought Mikkelsen's lead down to eight seconds, but the Skoda UK driver fought back against his factory rival this morning.
Mikkelsen kicked off by winning the Zobak stage, with Kopecky only third and 6.9s slower. The pair shared the stage victory on Arpadteto, but then Mikkelsen was faster again on Nyarasvolgy, giving him an 18.8s lead heading to the service break.
Nyarasvolgy also saw the first non-Skoda stage win of the rally, with Kronos Peugeot's Thierry Neuville going quickest. That made his third place more comfortable, as Freddy Loix's BFO Skoda had closed in on the previous stage after a mistake by Neuville. The pair are now split by 16.1s.
Leading positions after SS11: Pos Driver Team/Car Time/Gap 1. Andreas Mikkelsen Skoda UK 1h33m13.8s 2. Jan Kopecky Skoda + 18.8s 3. Thierry Neuville Kronos/Peugeot Belux + 32.5s 4. Freddy Loix BFO Skoda + 48.6s 5. Bryan Bouffier PH Peugeot + 1m40.5s 6. Gyorgy Aschenbrenner Martevo Mitsubishi + 2m18.8s 7. Hermann Gassner Jr Red Bull Skoda + 2m33.1s 8. Robert Butor M3 Auto Peugeot + 2m41.9s 9. Toni Gardemeister TGS Skoda + 2m48.4s 10. Bruno Magalhaes Peugeot Portugal + 3m26.5s
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