This is the moment when Ola Fløene became a driver in the Intercontinental Rally Challenge.
Fløene, who has navigated Andreas Mikkelsen to back-to-back IRC titles, took the wheel of their ŠKODA UK Fabia Super 2000 for the Cyprus Rally-closing 15.91-kilometre Stavros stage on Sunday afternoon when it became clear their second-place finish on the mixed-surface event was all but secured.
“I was so nervous, especially when it started to rain and it got quite slippery,” said Norwegian Fløene. “He was the worse navigator you could have because he was never on time with his pacenotes and was always laughing.”
Mikkelsen’s team boss Pierfrancesco Zanchi added: “I know this would happen because it was a kind of promise Andreas made to Ola if we had a big advantage before the last stage to the driver in the third place. We had this advantage so they did this change.”