Andreas Mikkelsen takes early Azores lead as 2012 Intercontinental Rally Challenge kicks off
Reigning Intercontinental Rally Challenge champion Andreas Mikkelsen took a narrow early lead over 2010 title-winner Juho Hanninen as the 2012 series got underway in the Azores this afternoon
Last year Mikkelsen produced a breakthrough challenge for victory on this event - then held in the summer - before Skoda requested that he hold position behind works driver and rally leader Hanninen.
This time Skoda UK man Mikkelsen got off to the best start by building a 3.2-second lead over Hanninen on the opening stage. The Finn reclaimed two seconds of that advantage on SS2, before Mikkelsen went slightly faster on the day-closing superspecial to head for service with a 1.4s lead.
Peugeot men Bryan Bouffier and 2010 Azores winner Bruno Magalhaes hold third and fourth, the latter slightly delayed when a handbrake problem forced him to reverse back on course on stage two.
Leading positions after SS3: Pos Driver Team/Car Time/Gap 1. Andreas Mikkelsen Skoda UK 13m53.7s 2. Juho Hanninen Skoda + 1.4s 3. Bryan Bouffier Peugeot + 23.0s 4. Bruno Magalhaes Peugeot + 29.9s 5. Sepp Wiegand Skoda Deutschland + 52.0s 6. Ricardo Moura Mitsubishi + 53.7s 7. Hermann Gassner Jr Red Bull Skoda + 56.1s 8. Oleksandr Salyuk Iurii Chemezov Ford + 1m17.5s 9. Rashid Al Ketbi Skydive Dubai Skoda + 1m37.2s 10. Oleksii Tamrazov Iurii Chemezov Ford + 1m42.9s
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