Hyundai is smiling at Rally Australia

Andreas Mikkelsen took advantage of his preferential position on the road in the first stage of the Rally from Australia. The winner of the last edition with Volkswagen won five stages to end the first day with a lead of more than 20 seconds.

“It was a very good start to the event which brought back memories of my victory last season, recognizes the Norwegian. I drove very cleanly throughout the stage, making no mistakes and I was very comfortable behind the wheel. I feel at home. I tried to increase my lead as much as possible and the gap of 20 seconds is satisfactory. »

Andreas Mikkelsen is nevertheless aware that the hardest part remains to be done, with still more than 200km timed to face.

“Our opponents will be closer on the road tomorrow and we tried to make the most of it today, admits Andreas Mikkelsen. Things couldn't have gone better. The weather forecast suggests that there could be rain this weekend and there are long stages to face tomorrow. »

His teammate and friend Thierry Neuville a également réussi son entame de rallye puisqu’il est le plus proche du Scandinave alors qu’il disposait d’une position bien moins préférentielle. Le Belge est en pleine bagarre face à Kris Meeke (Citroën) qui n’accuse que sept dixièmes de retard, tandis que Jari-Matti Latvala (Toyota) pointe à moins de dix secondes de sa Hyundai.

“This first day was promising, notes Thierry Neuville. The conditions are quite delicate with a lot of loose earth, which forces the first to sweep. All the stages went pretty well in my opinion and I'm quite happy with our position. We suffered a bit with the soft tire in the long afternoon special (Sherwood 2), which prevented us from attacking as we wanted, but we managed to keep a decent pace. The fight is very close against Kris while Andreas was very fast in front. We clearly want to win and I will continue to fight for that with a more favorable road position tomorrow. »

Hayden Paddon is further behind since the New Zealander is only in seventh place, five seconds behindOtt Tänak (M-Sport).

“This is not how we wanted to start the last event of the season, admits the third Hyundai driver. Things didn't work out for no obvious reason. We just couldn’t get into the rhythm. We will analyze the data in order to progress tomorrow. This is an event where I usually feel comfortable. There's more to get, that's for sure. »

The second stage of Rally Australia will begin at 21:18 p.m. with the 48,89km Nambucca17.