After finishing second at the 52nd San Remo Rally, this year’s tenth Intercontinental Rally Challenge (IRC) event, Škoda Motorsport’s crew Juho Hänninen – Mikko Markkula have become the IRC champions in the Drivers Competition. Also supported by the factory team, Freddy Loix – Frédéric Miclotte finished third, Jan Kopecký – Petr Starý, another regular Škoda Motorsport crew, came sixth.
Says Michal Hrabánek, Head of Škoda Motorsport: “After the Manufacturers Competition where we secured victory earlier on, we have now accomplished another major goal by winning the Drivers Competition, and I wish to congratulate our Finnish crew and all of the team members on this achievement. At the moment we are not planning to appear at the remaining two events as a complete factory team, but the decision regarding our further agenda is going to be made soon“.
Juho Hänninen: “I am very happy – we decided to play it quite safe yesterday when choosing the tyres for the longest stage (44 km), and I didn’t even dream of finishing this high at that point. The track here is very difficult, some of the other crews had problems, but we put in a consistent performance and today we even got a lot faster. A fantastic achievement, I want to thank the whole team, the car was prepared excellently“.
Jan Kopecký: “The car went perfectly, but I didn’t find the right rhythm in this race. Congratulations to the whole team on securing a podium position and a big thanks to all for their support“.
