Skoda drivers expected to be quick in Acores

Skoda Sweden driver Patrick Sandell has said he expects the Skoda Fabia S2000 drivers on this week's Sata Rally Acores to be very quick when the Challenge returns to gravel.

Skoda are due to field four Fabias S2000's, two Skoda Motorsport cars for Juho Hanninen & Jan Kopecky, one Skoda Sweden car for Patrick Sandell & a Skoda UK car for Andreas Mikkelsen.

All of the Skoda drivers have prior experience of the Acores event, except Sandell. Last year's event proved a small disaster for the Skoda team,however, with Jan Kopecky crashing out on the last stage and Juho Hanninen losing a enough time to lose him the lead and drop him to third. Despite last year's calamities, the Skoda drivers, who prefer gravel events, are expected to be the pace setters of the rally.

“Andreas is fifth on the road, just one place ahead of me, and this will be the almost ideal road position for the first day of the rally. I wouldn’t be surprised if myself and Mikkelsen are at the top on Thursday night but Juho is very strong as well. Either way they will be the strongest guys to race against.” said the two-times Junior World Rally Champion, Sandell.