Juho Hänninen gets closer to victory

Juho Hänninen maintains the advantage over Andreas Mikkelsen with two stages remaining on the Azores Rally. Bruno Magalhaes retired while fighting for a place on the podium.

Published on 16/07/2011 à 15:31

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Juho Hänninen (Skoda) was overtaken by Andreas Mikkelsen (Skoda) after an error by the Finn who missed a turn on SS13 due to lack of visibility. The reigning champion of the discipline showed his authority in the following special by regaining more than ten seconds' lead over his rival for victory. At the service, Andreas Mikkelsen is 10?9 behind Juho Hänninen.

Bruno Magalhaes (Peugeot ) contained the attacks of Jan Kopecky (Skoda) to reach the last step of the podium, but the Portuguese had to retire following a transmission failure on his 207 S2000 in SS13. The Czech thus recovers third place without being threatened by the competition.

Bryan Bouffier (Peugeot) is in fact almost two minutes from the last step of the podium. However, his fourth place does not seem threatened either, Patrik Sandell (Skoda) being more than a minute behind the Frenchman.

The crews will leave at 17:26 p.m. to compete in the last two special stages of the Rally of the Azores, which includes a total of 33 timed kilometers.