Mikkelsen in the lead after three stages

Andreas Mikkelsen ends day 1 of Sata Rally Azores on top of the provisional standings but only just as Finland’s Juho Hanninen kept the pressure and is currently only 1,4 seconds behind. Third place went to Bryan Bouffier, but he is already over 20 seconds behind the leading of the two Škodas.

Today’s three stages, one of which was a super special, covered only 26,63 kilometers. Even so it’s pretty clear Škoda Fabia S2000 will again be in its own league. Rally continues tomorrow with six additional stages covering over 86 kilometers.

Classification after SS 3

1 Andreas Mikkelsen Hello Floene 00:13:53,7
2 Juho Hanninen Mikko Markkula 00:13:55,1
3 Bryan Bouffier Xavier Panseri 00:14:16,7
4 Bruno Magalhaes Magalhaes 00:14:23,6
5 Sepp Wiegand Timo Gottschalk 00:14:45,7
6 Ricardo Moura Sancho Eiró 00:14:47,4
7 Hermann Gassner Jr. Klaus Wicha 00:14:49,8
8 Oleksandr Salyuk Pavlo Cherepin 00:15:11,2
9 Rashid Al Ketbi Khalid Al Kendi 00:15:30,9
10 Oleksii Tamrazov Nicola Arena 00:15:36,6