WRC – Mikkelsen holds slender lead in Poland

Andreas Mikkelsen leads an FIA World Rally Championship round for the first time since 2019 after he completed leg one of ORLEN 80th Rally Poland in front of Kalle Rovanperä by 1.8s.

Just 7.7s cover the leading five drivers at the end of an action-packed opening day on Poland’s super-fast gravel roads.

Mikkelsen set the early pace and stormed into the lead on the Stańczyki test as his title-hunting Hyundai colleague, Ott Tänak – who had led following Friday evening’s superspecial – retired with front-end damage caused by an unavoidable impact.

The Norwegian star built a buffer of 7.4s in his i20 N Rally1 Hybrid but came under attack from Toyota GR Yaris Rally1 Hybrid drivers Kalle Rovanperä and Elfyn Evans on the repeated afternoon loop when his late starting position offered less of an advantage on stages already swept clear of loose gravel.

“I am happy with my day,” said Mikkelsen, who last led a WRC rally in Turkey in 2019. “I was too careful on the first stage after regroup so we will try to adjust for tomorrow.”

Toyota’s super-sub Rovanperä produced one of the drives of the day, pipping team-mate Evans on the final stage to head the Welshman by two-tenths of a second. The Finn was drafted in to replace Sébastien Ogier on Tuesday evening and even collected two stage wins despite having less than ideal pre-event preparations.

“It’s quite funny; last night I was watching a [reconnaissance] video on the laptop and I fell asleep,” he said. “I think we did a good job today [considering] the situation we are in.”

Evans posted top-three times for all but two stages and is currently poised to close the gap to title rivals Tänak and Thierry Neuville, whom he trailed coming into this seventh round of the season. Neuville, the championship leader, faced slippery conditions on road-sweeping duties and ended down in seventh overall.

Mārtiņš Sesks made a stunning start to his Rally1 debut, stopping the clock just 0.3sec adrift of Mikkelsen’s time on SS2 and holding second overall until midday. Driving a non-hybrid Ford Puma Rally1, the 24-year-old Latvian fell to fifth in the afternoon, trailing full-time M-Sport Ford driver Adrien Fourmaux by 0.2s after yielding position to the Frenchman through the day-closing Mikołajki Arena superspecial.

Grégoire Munster, also driving a Puma, ended day one 21.3s adrift of the lead in sixth with Neuville a further 8.5s behind. Takamoto Katsuta, who struggled to find a comfortable rhythm in his Toyota, is eighth while FIA WRC2 frontrunners Sami Pajari and Kajetan Kajetanowicz complete the top 10.

Poland’s Jakub Matulka leads FIA WRC with Armin Kremer ahead in the FIA WRC Masters’ category.

While temperatures touched a humid 30°C two stage cancellations meant that tyre wear was not much of a concern, even for those running soft compound rubber.

Crews face seven more stages covering 124.10 kilometres on Sunday, including a third pass over the short superspecial stage next to the rally’s Mikołajki base.