Andreas Mikkelsen describes the crash and the feeling he had in Stage 5 of Rally Japan and is being disappointed with what happened on Friday.
The Norwegian driver was in sixth place overall and was the second-top Hyundai driver on the classification until Stage 5 where he passed throughtout a bank with the front right tyre resulting in having zero grip and going straight into a tree. He and Torstein Eriksen managed to complete Stage 5, but he dropped more than seven minutes while they and Hyundai decided to withdraw #9 car on the road section before the end of Stage 6. The Alzenau-based team confirmed that the crew will restart under the SuperRally regulations on Saturday and will try to get some points on Sunday.
"We were running with a hard tyre on the front right of the car when we came into a slippery section", Mikkelsen said.
"There was a river of water running down on the right, which we caught and lost all grip, so we crashed.
"It’s very disappointing as we were trying to increase our speed in the afternoon, and our split times were looking promising, but it doesn’t matter if you don’t reach the finish.
"It’s not what we wanted from today, but hopefully the car will be fixed for tomorrow, with everything to drive for on Sunday".
Photo Credits: Hyundai
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