Andreas Mikkelsen returned back from Rally Italia Sardegna with a good feeling, even though he had to retire on the Friday. – What happened Friday was outside of my control, and except from that we have been on a good pace – and that’s a good feeling to bring home.
June 11, 2018
– We have taken some good steps with the car, and the good feeling was absolutely there. It’s that feeling we need to bring with us, says the 28-year-old.
The 2018 season is not to be remembered as the season when everything was in Andreas Mikkelsen’s favour, it’s more the opposite way. Rally Italia Sardegna is the third event in a row where he probably lost a podium place. Together with co-driver Anders Jaeger he started the seventh round in the championship on an impressive high. They were leading with 14 seconds ahead of team-mate Thierry Neuville after the first five stages. But for the afternoon loop of stages, the struggle started. He lost second gear on SS6, and on the following stage the gearbox got stuck in reverse, and were forced to retire. He restarted again on Saturday morning, and continued with good speed, even though there were nothing to fight for anymore.
– I’m very happy that we continued with our good speed, and I know from experience that we have “an extra gear” to use when we are fighting in the lead, he explains.
Sunday stages were all about saving tyres for the final power stage. But as first WRC-car on the road that was a challenging stage, and the cars following could go in his lines. Still it was enough to a top 4 stage time and 2 extra points.
– We have been fighting in the lead with top stage times, and that shows that we are on pace when everything works. The power stage was a really good stage for us, but with being first on the road we were not really rewarded for the job with did. Anyway, I did my best!
Andreas team-mate Thierry Neuville snatched the victory on the final stage, only 0,7 seconds ahead of world champion Sebastien Ogier.
Next up is Rally Finland, 26 – 29 July.