Andres Mikkelsen takes early Cyprus Rally lead on superspecial

Andreas Mikkelsen set a blistering fastest time as the Intercontinental Rally Challenge's five-way title shoot-out got underway with the Pafos street stage on Thursday evening in Cyprus

Nov 3, 2011, 5:27 PM

The Skoda UK driver's 2m48.9s time gave him an overnight lead of 3.1 seconds over reigning champion Juho Hanninen in second.

Hanninen was 0.2s quicker than his works Skoda team-mate Jan Kopecky, who leads the championship. Kopecky has had to make a last-minute co-driver change this weekend after regular partner Petr Stary was taken ill. Pavel Dresler is standing in.

Remaining title contenders Freddy Loix (BFO Skoda) and Thierry Neuville (Kronos Peugeot) complete the top five, both within 4.1s of the lead.

Leading positions after SS1:

Pos  Driver             Team/Car              Time/Gap
 1.  Andreas Mikkelsen  Skoda UK               2m48.9s
 2.  Juho Hanninen      Skoda                   + 3.1s
 3.  Jan Kopecky        Skoda                   + 3.3s
 4.  Freddy Loix        BFO Skoda               + 3.6s
 5.  Thierry Neuville   Kronos/Peugeot Belux    + 4.1s
 6.  Toshi Arai         Arai Subaru             + 8.9s
 7.  Patrik Sandell     Skoda Sweden           + 10.7s
 8.  Nasser Al-Attiyah  Barwa Ford             + 12.1s
 9.  Mark Wallenwein    Skoda Deutschland      + 12.3s
10.  Matthias Kahle     Skoda Deutschland      + 13.7s