Mikkelsen woes hand Kopecky win

It looked like Andreas Mikkelsen would continue his winning streak in the IRC with yet another win, but this time on tarmac on the Rally Islas Canarias. After all, he had lead for all bar two stages, and only when he slowed tactically to allow team-mate Jan Kopecky into the lead on yesterday's final stage.

However, it wasn't to be. The flying Norwegian was leading the rally by 3.6 secs heading into the final stage, and it looked like he would get his first tarmac win. The Skoda pair had been fighting hard between themselves throughout, and through the 21.36 km San Bartolome De Tirajana stage, Kopecky and Mikkelsen were only split by one tenth of a second. Then, tragically, Mikkelsen's Skoda developed a power-sapping misfire, dropping him half a minute and the rally win.

Understandably distraught, Mikkelsen said: "It was an engine misfire, no power at all..." said Mikkelsen. "It was so close to my first victory on Tarmac. It's a shame. Nothing we can do."

Nothing had warned him of the problem, his only mistake being during SS7, sliding off the road & bouncing back onto the road, but surviving. Kopecky came though to take the win in the end, but he wasn't celebrating emphatically, saying: "It's a pity because it was a nice battle the whole weekend,” said Kopecky. “Winning because of his problem does not make me so happy."

“We were pushing quite much on the last three stages and finally Andreas had some problems with the car. I must say I don’t feel so happy because I wanted to beat him in a fight. But this is what can happen in rallying so thanks to ŠKODA because they gave us an opportunity to be here and thanks to my new co-driver Pavel Dresler because today he improved himself a lot and did a great job.” said the Czech driver.

Third place went to the event promoter, Luis Monzon. Indeed, he has won twice before, in 1991 and 1994, but he is more often seen racing GT cars today, not rally cars. These days, he's usually promoting the rally, but does drive now and then. Running third on his return is hugely impressive, and even more impressive is the fact that he hasn't sat in an S2000 Peugeot for 4 years now. Fighting with the two young German's in Sepp Wiegand and Hermann Gassner Jr., he pulled clear and rocketed into the distance as he got his set-up to his liking. However, Monzon was over 3 mins behind the leading Skoda's, showing the pace of the IRC frontrunners.

In yet another all-German battle over fourth, Sepp Wiegand came out on top after Gassner Jr. crashed out of the rally, courtesy of an overly optimistic pace note sending him into the scenery. The scenery might be nice to look at in the Canary Islands, but when your fighting for position in your €250,000 S2000 rally car, it's not somewhere you want to go flying into.

Jonathan Perez took his Peugeot 207 S2000 to fifth, nearly seven and a half minutes behind Kopecky. Just behind him in sixth was IRC 2WD Cup winner Joan Vinyes in his Suzuki Swift S1600. Even though this is an impressive result, it shows that the entry lists are starting to thin out.

Seventh and eighth went to second and third in the IRC 2WD Cup, with Gorka Antxustegi and Angel Marrero taking the positions, respectively. Débuting his Skoda Fabia S2000 was Janos Puskadi, who took ninth. Rounding out the Top 10 was Rashid Al Ketbi, who broke his car's clutch and had to drive for 3 stages with no clutch, putting great strain on his car's gearbox.

After the rally, Luis Monzon was announced as Colin McRae IRC Flat Out Trophy winner this time round. His drive was praised by Jean-Pierre Nicholas, the former World Rally Championship driver, and Monzon was very pleased himself, saying: “I don’t find the words for this,” said Monzón. “Colin McRae for me was the best driver in the world. To receive this trophy is the maximum feeling.”