Pressemelding: Mikkelsen blant favorittene i WRC2

Andreas Mikkelsen er blant favorittene når WRC2-sesongen starter med Rally Monte Carlo. Les mer i denne engelske pressemeldingen fra Skoda.

Driving two ŠKODA FABIA Rally2 evo from Toksport WRT with support fromŠKODA Motorsport, Andreas Mikkelsen/Ola Fløene(NOR/NOR) and Marco Bulacia/Marcelo Der Ohannesian (BOL/ARG) will compete a full WRC2 season in the FIA World Rally Championship 2021. At the opening round, the legendary Rallye Monte-Carlo (21 –24 January 2021), both crews are among the top favourites and will face tough competition in the 34 crews strong Rally2 field. Sevenof them, driving cars from fourdifferent manufacturers, are eligible to score points in the WRC2 category.

Andreas Mikkelsen has a remarkable track record with ŠKODA. Driving a ŠKODA FABIA S2000, he won the Intercontinental Rally Championship (IRC) in 2011 and 2012. In 2017 he made a stunning return to the Czech brand at the Rallye Monte-Carlo. He not only won the WRC2 category, but on top of that he also finished a remarkable seventh in the overall classification among the more powerful WRC1 cars. At the Rally France/Tour de Corse the same year, he again won the WRC2 category, helping ŠKODA Motorsport to take the WRC2 Team Championship of the FIA World Rally Championship. Last year, he returned to the Czech brandagain, won Rally Hungary (penultimate round of the FIA European Rally Championship) and added a victory in WRC3 category at the ACI Rally Monza, final round of the FIA World Rally Championship 2020, by finishing avery goodsixth overall.

Andreas Mikkelsen, navigated by co-driver Ola Fløene and supported by ŠKODAMotorsport, will compete the full WRC2 season of the FIA World Rally Championship 2021 in a ŠKODA FABIA Rally2 evo from Toksport WRT. The Norwegian has a clear target:

“I am aiming for the WRC2 title and want to win the category at each event I am competing. To start with, Rallye Monte-Carlo is an event I like, where I have achieved good results in the past. Also, the ever-changing road conditions fit the ŠKODA FABIA Rally2 evo very well. So we should be competitive. But as tyre choice is always difficult, we also have to get this right to win.”

“We start into the 2021 season with a further improved version of the ŠKODA FABIA Rally2 evo, which will make its competition debut at the Rallye Monte-Carlo. Overall, the focus of ŠKODAMotorsport will be again on supporting customerteams,” Michal Hrabánek, Head of ŠKODAMotorsport, looks ahead.

“We are very proud, that in cooperation with ŠKODA Motorsport we can run two cars in WRC2. We have a great line-up with an experienced driver, Andreas Mikkelsen, and a young talent, Marco Bulacia. Our goal for the season is to defend the WRC2 team title and win as well the drivers’ championship. So the first step would be to score maximum team points at Rallye Monte-Carlo,” comments Toksport WRT principal Serkan Duru.

The first leg of the Rallye Monte-Carlo starts on Thursday (21 January) at 13h10 in the winter sports town of Gap, situated in the middle of the French Alps. During the opening leg, the crews have to face two stages, each of them more than 20 kilometres long. On Friday and Saturday (22/23 January), eight more stages follow before the crews head south to Monaco. The Sunday leg (24 January) features four more stages close to the principality. In total, the crews have to tackle 14special stages covering roughly 258kilometres. Due to the measures taken against the spread of the coronavirus, Rallye Monte-Carlo will take place behind closed doors with no spectators allowed inside the service park and along the stages.