Poland: Will Andreas Mikkelsen seize his chance?

Nominated as 3rd driver by Hyundai to compete in the Polish rally (June 26-30), Andreas Mikkelsen, who will be associated with Torstein Eriksen, does not really have a choice. After two mixed appearances on asphalt this year, he must take advantage of the dirt to be more convincing.

When the crews were announced at Hyundai for 2024, it was not so much the name of Andreas Mikkelsen that was surprising, but above all the mission assigned to him. The Korean manufacturer enjoying running the tenant of the 3^e car, the workforce was rich of 5 pairs. Alongside Thierry Neuville et Ott Tänak, chosen for the entire championship, Dani Sordo, Esapekka Lappi and Andreas Mikkelsen were to share the 13 meetings. For the Norwegian, it was very surprising to learn that it was he who would be lined up for the asphalt rounds. Due to his training and especially given the results obtained at Hyundai on this surface between October 2017 and 2019, this casting was (very!) far from obvious. He himself smiled about it as the Monte-Carlo approached, no doubt being aware that the challenge would not be easy to take on.

In addition to having to get used to the premier category again after 4 years in Rally2, the Nordic also had to come up against the obligation of only doing one day of testing. The result at Monte Carlo was only half a surprise. Never in the game, Andreas was unable to do better than a 5^e time in 17 ES. After settling for a 6^e rank, he hoped to rectify the situation in Croatia, but his performance there was generally of the same level, whatever his position on the road when this should sometimes have made his task easier. Lucid and logically disappointed at the end of the race after another 6^e Instead, Mikkelsen was planning towards Poland where he knew he would be aligned. Without asserting that this rally will be decisive for the rest of his career, it is clear that the Viking will be observed there. This time there will be no more surface excuse. Certainly, the test kilometers will also have been very rare, but it is on dirt that the native of Oslo showed himself the most and it is there that he recorded 2 of his 3 successes.

Poland is also a round that the Hyundai driver knows very well. He will be one of those with the most participations in Mikolajki with a debut in 2009 in a Skoda Fabia WRC private (abandonment). Integrated into the Volkswagen team, he competed in Poland in 2014 (2^e), in 2015 (2^e) and in 2016 where he won. After a final appearance in the world championship in 2017 in a Citroën C3 WRC (9^e), he returned there in ERC in 2021 with Skoda (3^e). Will his natural talent on these fast roads and the strong motivation that must drive him to reverse this average start to the year allow him to achieve a good result? What is clear is that Hyundai and Cyril Abiteboul await a reaction from the 35-year-old pilot.