“It’s a good start, a good stage
and hopefully we’ll keep it this way for the whole rally. We won’t
go flat out everywhere but if I drive fast and consistent I’ll be
really happy.”
Mikkelsen won the short opening stage
by a staggering 3.1 secs over Skoda Motorsport's Juho Hanninen, with
the other Skoda Motorsport entry of Jan Kopecky in third, a tenth of
a second behind his team-mate. Hanninen made the decision to bolt on
a set of scrubbed gravel tyres, to improve the grip of the tyres.
Freddy Loix is fourth, with Theirry
Neuville (who's surname sparked a debate on IRC Rally Radio) in
fifth, 3.6 and 4.1 secs off the lead, respectively. Sixth is Toshi
Arai in the Subaru Impreza R4, 8.9 secs off Mikkelsen's pace. Arai
has been testing on gravel/tarmac stages in his homeland of Japan, in
order to gain a better understanding of the car on mixed-surface
events.
Patrik Sandell described his driving as
“shit” during the stage, completing the 3.2km run nearly 11 secs
slower than Mikkelsen. Eighth is last year's winner Nasser
Al-Attiyah, 12 secs off the lead.
The stage proved a success, drawing in
thousands of supporters. Spectator access to the stage was free of
charge for members of the public. Several drivers noted the vast
turn-out of spectators in the stage.
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