Second WRC Win for Mikkelsen in Poland
Andreas Mikkelsen scored his second World Rally Championship victory on the Rally Poland after being locked in a lead battle with Ott Tanak and Hayden Paddon for the whole weekend. Up to the last day it looked as if Tanak had done enough to secure his first WRC win and also that of the DMACK tyre team too, also bringing M-Sport Ford its first victory since Rally GB 2012.
But when the fat lady eventually sang it was Mikkelsen, with new-for-2016 co-driver Anders Jaeger, who came through to win by 26s as Tanak only just hung on to second but still scored DMACK's first podium position - ahead of Hyundai's fast closing Paddon and Thierry Neuville.
Only 14.1s covered second to sixth at the end of the rally after VW pair Jari-Matti Latvala and Ogier won the final two stages. Ogier had hung on just behind the podium battle on day one when running first on the road proved less painful than on recent events. But the Saturday stages were tougher and the world champion fell to a distant sixth place.
Craig Breen emerged on top of a head-to-head with his rival for a 2017 Citroen drive Stephane Lefebvre after they'd completed most of the rally tied together, Lefebvre first having the advantage with a maiden stage win, only to then crash on Sunday's second stage but despite severe left-rear damage, Lefebvre and PH Sport were able to get the car repaired and he finished 12th, while Breen was seventh.
Mads Ostberg finished eighth and Camilli limped home in ninth in the sister car after he'd damaged his rear suspension in a crash after the finish of the penultimate stage. Dani Sordo was closing on them both before first damaging the front of his car and then his rear suspension, the latter terminal. This allowed Teemu Suninen to claim 10th overall and victory in WRC2 in his ORECA Skoda after a hard-fought weekend battling M-Sport's Elfyn Evans and works Fabia men Esapekka Lappi and Pontus Tidemand.
Results after SS21:
Pos .... Driver .... Team .... Car .... Gap
1. Andreas Mikkelsen/A.J.Synnevaag Volkswagen Motorsport II 2h37m34.4s
2. Ott Tanak/R.Molder DMACK World Rally Team Ford 26.2s
3. Hayden Paddon/J.Kennard Hyundai Motorsport Hyundai 28.5s
4. Thierry Neuville/N.Gilsoul Hyundai Motorsport Hyundai 29.3s
5. Jari-Matti Latvala/M.Anttila Volkswagen Motorsport 33.8s
6. Sebastien Ogier/J.Ingrassia Volkswagen Motorsport 40.3s
7. Craig Breen/S.Martin Abu Dhabi Total WRT Citroen 2m01.4s
8. Mads Ostberg/O.Floene M-Sport World Rally Team Ford 3m04.6s
9. Eric Camilli/B.Veillas M-Sport World Rally Team Ford 5m23.1s
10.Teemu Suninen/M.Markkula Team Oreca Skoda Fabia 5m53.3s
5th July, 2016