Fifth overall in the Uddeholm Swedish Rally was an outstanding result for Andreas Mikkelsen and co-driver Ola Fløene, with a previous best in the World Rally Championship of ninth in Rally Ireland in November 2007.

Engine turbo boost problems throughout Friday’s Leg 1 made it a difficult start, but the team successfully replaced the necessary parts in Friday evening’s flexi-service, meaning Mikkelsen and Fløene could continue the remainder of the rally smoothly and with style.

Mikkelsen also made history today by being the youngest driver to score championship points in a WRC event, beating Matthew Wilson’s previous record of eighth in Rally Argentina at the age of nineteen.

Andreas said, “We had a positive shakedown and the car felt great.  On the way to the start of the first stage on Friday morning though, there was something wrong with a turbo valve and we were more or less without turbo all of Leg 1.   I must thank the Ramsport mechanics who had such a lot to do on Friday night: how they managed to do it all was just incredible.  They’ve done a great job all weekend.  On Saturday the car was working 100% and I also drove well so everything worked.

We set some really good stage times and made up for some of the time lost on Friday, climbing a few places.  Today we had a great fight with Matthew and it was too bad he went off because it was a good battle and as well as being sad for him, I would have preferred to have fought to the end!  When we saw he had retired we just turned down our pace and concentrated on improving our pace notes for returning here in 2010. ”

It was a multiple triumph for youth as Finnish 22 year-old Jari-Matti Latvala became the youngest WRC event winner, breaking Henri Toivonen’s record with a win at the 1980 RAC Rally aged 24.

Andreas’s next rally event is Rally Finnskog, a round in the Norwegian Rally Championship which takes place on 16 February.  The rally is located in the same region as the WRC event Rally Norway. 

www.rallyfinnskog.no

www.andreasmikkelsen.com