Andreas Mikkelsen reveals that he could have kept the pressure on Kalle Rovanpera if the puncture did not strike him in Stage 16, but he keeps only the positives from Rally Poland.
The Norwegian driver did his first gravel outing with the Hyundai i20N Rally1 in Poland last week and was the rally leader on Friday despite the fact that he struggled with the balance of his car on Friday afternoon. He dropped two places on Saturday morning and was third overall at the end of Stage 10 while his lead from the second Rovanpera was at 0,5 seconds at the end of SS9. Both of them would continue their fight for the top step of the podium on Sunday since Elfyn Evans dropped many seconds after his puncture in Stage 13, but the Hyundai driver hit a bank and suffered from a rear right puncture on the opening stage of Sunday. In addition to that, he dropped from second to sixth at the end of Powerstage as his i20N carried a cosmetic damage, but the most important thing is that Hyundai managed to get the points he scored from his second place on Saturday classification and to remain in front of Toyota on the championship. The next outing for him is expected to be Central European Rally next October, as his contract with the Koreans includes his participation on the tarmac WRC rounds of the season, but Rally Poland was an exception.
"There are a lot of positives to take from this weekend", Mikkelsen said.
"Had we not had the tyre off the rim, I think we could have kept the pressure on Kalle and be fighting for the podium.
"I felt we had a bit of bad luck as we had been using the banks tactically this rally to keep up the speed through the corners, but it is what it is.
"After that, it was just about getting the car to the finish to secure the points for the team".
Photo Credits: Hyundai
Post a Comment