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Andreas Mikkelsen's WRC2 title hopes are in jeopardy after crashing in Athens' Olympic Stadium
Photography by McKlein & Red Bull
Andreas Mikkelsen’s bid to retain his World Rally Championship-2 title is in jeopardy after he crashed on the very first stage of Acropolis Rally Greece.
Mikkelsen realistically needed to win this weekend to win the title. Competitors carry the best six of their seven scores towards their final championship tally, and Greece is Mikkelsen’s final rally.
But more pertinently, he is forced to carry one zero-point score towards his final total after two engine-related retirements in both Portugal and Sardinia earlier in the season.
The last thing the former Volkswagen and Hyundai driver needed then was to crash his Škoda within 10 seconds of the start of the opening 1.2-mile superspecial in the Olympic Stadium in Athens.
Mikkelsen took way too much air over a jump and careered into the concrete barrier on the outside of the corner, destroying his front-left wheel.
Mikkelsen crabbed round part of the stage with the wheel pointing 45 degrees inwards towards the wheel arch, but elected to pull off after one lap – with Yohan Rossel right behind him – without completing his mandatory two laps.
He will earn himself a 10-minute penalty for retiring on the stage.
There is no official service until the end of Friday but Mikkelsen’s Toksport team is able to fix the Fabia Rally2 evo, so long as it can get the car to the first time control on Friday in time. Retiring from stage one allows Mikkelsen’s team to bring the stricken Fabia back to service for repairs.
The service park in Lamia is 130 miles north of the Olympic Stadium. All cars will be taken back on a transporter.
Plenty of the Rally1 drivers, who were all onto the stage after Mikkelsen, saw his mistake and admitted to taking a bit more caution on the stage as a result.
But apparently not Esapekka Lappi, who made the exact same mistake but managed to get away with it, tapping the barrier with the rear of his Toyota GR Yaris Rally1.
“I think it’s OK, I think it’s only cosmetic,” said Lappi, the left-rear wheel of his Toyota GR Yaris Rally1 sporting concrete dust from the impact.
“Fully locked the wheels on the braking and couldn’t restart the engine, but that’s how it is.”
There were no such problems for Thierry Neuville though, who leads the rally overnight after pipping fellow Hyundai driver (albeit in an i20 Rally2 rather than Rally1) Teemu Suninen by a single tenth of a second.
Neuville enjoyed his run through the packed stadium: “It’s like it should always be, such crowds and the atmosphere,” he said.
“Really congratulations to the organizers as well to put it in place for us and all the spectators who have come today so that’s great.
“It shows again an example that it’s possible to still bring the crowds to the WRC and I think the Promoter should take a look at it, I’m sure we can do better for the upcoming events as well.”
Neuville beat Elfyn Evans in his heat – who was 2.8 seconds slower – to lie outside the overall top 10.
Hyundai managed to actually cement a 1-2-3-4 with Dani Sordo and Ott Tänak third and fourth fastest respectively.
Tänak got the better of points leader Kalle Rovanperä in his heat by 0.4s, who described the stage as “not the most enjoyable but one of the coolest stages I’ve done. When you drive in front of a crowd like this then these kinds of stages are worth it.”
Rally2 cars showed their prowess on narrow and twisty superspecials yet again, after famously dominating the Porto superspecial on Rally Portugal earlier this year.
Emil Lindholm, Mikkelsen’s team-mate at Toksport, slotted into fifth place ahead of Gaurav Gill in another Fabia. Both bested Sébastien Loeb, who settled for seventh overall after beating Lappi in his heat.
Despite his skirmish with the barriers, Lappi’s time was relatively competitive among the Rally1 cars – just 0.3s down on eighth-placed Rovanperä.
Georg Linnamäe put a fourth Rally2 car in the top 10, slotting in between the Toyota team-mates in ninth with his Volkswagen Polo GTI R5.
Craig Breen and Pierre-Louis Loubet both won their heats – seeing off Takamoto Katsuta and Jourdan Serderidis respectively – to lie 11th and 13th, with Evans just one-tenth off Loubet in 15th.
Gus Greensmith, who was beaten by Sordo in their duel, is another tenth behind Evans with Katsuta another 0.6s adrift.
Photography: Red Bull, Hyundai & Toyota
Tags: Acropolis Rally 2022, Acropolis Rally Greece, Andreas Mikkelsen, WRC2, WRC2 2022
Publish Date September 8, 2022 DirtFish https://www-dirtfish.imgix.net/2022/09/Mikkelsen10GRE22tb204.jpg?fit=scale&fm=pjpg&h=520&ixlib=php-1.2.1&q=70&w=780&wpsize=entry-main September 8, 2022
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Copyright © 2022 DirtFish, LLC. All rights reserved.
Subaru Impreza STI Sedan & Hatchback Features
Roll Cage: Every rally car requires a welded-in safety cage. The roll cages in our cars are built in-house from scratch.
Racing Seats: Driver and co-driver need to be firmly mounted to the structure of the vehicle. The use of hinged-back seats in rally vehicles is prohibited in rally and most forms of racing.
Racing Harnesses: Safety first. A minimum of a 5-point harness is required by all American rally sanctioning bodies. The 5 points consist of 2 shoulder harness, 2 lap belts and a single anti-submarine belt (not shown).
Handbrake: Most rally cars use a hydraulic handbrake. The purpose of the handbrake maneuver is to turn a car around a very tight corner by locking up the rear wheels aiding in the rotation of the car around the corner.
Engine: Our Subaru STi’s use a 2.5 liter 4-cylinder Turbo-charged Boxer engine.
Drive train: The Subaru STi is equipped with an advanced all-wheel-drive system with an active center differential.
Gravel Rally Tires: Being a rally school, we spend most of our time on gravel roads. To maximize the learning experience, we outfit all of our cars with the latest gravel rally tires for maximum traction.
Method Rally Wheels: It is very important to have a durably strong, yet lightweight rally wheel that can hold up to constant abuse, rocks, rough roads and punctures. At DirtFish, we use and trust Method Race Wheels.
Suspension: Rally is rarely on a perfectly smooth roads, because of that rally cars require suspension that can take the abuse. We choose to use Reiger rally suspension on our cars.
Brakes: Rally cars commonly use a 15″ rally wheel. In order for the wheels to fit on our Subaru STi’s, we had to convert them to a Group N brake setup.
Underbody Protection: Driving at high speeds over variable surfaces can easily damage parts. With the constant spray of gravel that gets thrown at them, skid plates and urethane underbody protection help with the longevity of the underbody of the cars.
Roll Cage: Every rally car requires a welded-in safety cage. The roll cages in our cars are built in-house from scratch.
Racing Seats: Driver and co-driver need to be firmly mounted to the structure of the vehicle. The use of hinged-back seats in rally vehicles is prohibited in rally and most forms of racing.
Racing Harnesses: Safety first. A minimum of a 5-point harness is required by all American rally sanctioning bodies. The 5 points consist of 2 shoulder harness, 2 lap belts and a single anti-submarine belt (not shown).
Handbrake: Most rally cars use a hydraulic handbrake. The purpose of the handbrake maneuver is to turn a car around a very tight corner by locking up the rear wheels to aid the rotation of the car around the corner.
Engine: The Subary BRZ is powered by a 2.0 liter naturally aspirated Boxer engine.
Drive train: The Subaru BRZ is rear-wheel-drive and equipped with a limited slip differential.
Gravel Rally Tires: Being a rally school, we spend most of our time on gravel roads. To maximize the learning experience, we outfit all of our cars with the latest gravel rally tires for maximum traction.
Method Rally Wheels: It is very important to have a durably strong, yet lightweight rally wheel that can hold up to constant abuse, rocks, rough roads and punctures. At DirtFish, we use and trust Method Race Wheels.
Suspension: Rally is rarely on a perfectly smooth roads, because of that rally cars require suspension that can take the abuse. We choose to use Reiger rally suspension on our cars.
Brakes: Rally cars commonly use a 15″ rally wheel. Luckily with the Subaru BRZ’s, the stock brake system is more than adequate for our programs.
Underbody Protection: Driving at high speeds over variable surfaces can easily damage parts. With the constant spray of gravel that gets thrown at them, skid plates and urethane underbody protection help with the longevity of the underbody of the cars.
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