There was drama on stage two of the Sibiu Rally, the 28.70-kilometre Crinți test, when Mathieu Arzeno, Patrik Flodin and Sepp Wiegand were among several leading runners to hit trouble.
Arzeno, from France, is reported to have stopped in the stage in his Saintéloc Racing Peugeot 207 Super 2000, Wiegand lost more than one minute with a left-rear puncture on his ŠKODA Auto Deutschland Fabia, while Flodin also picked up a left-rear deflation six kilometres from the finish of the stage in his PS Engineering M-Sport Ford Fiesta S2000.
Flodin (pictured) reported having to drive extremely slowly over the final two kilometres in order to reach the stage finish and inadvertently delayed François Delecour, who said he lost more than 20s as a result in his Munaretto Sport Peugeot.
But there were no such problems for defending Intercontinental Rally Challenge champion Andreas Mikkelsen, who claimed his second stage win in Romania for ŠKODA UK Motorsport.
“It was long and tricky but better than we expected from the recce,” said the Norwegian. “I tried to keep clean and tidy to avoid the rocks. We’re not overdoing anything, driving as we planned and I’m very comfortable.”
Mikkelsen’s overall advantage now stands at 57.4s over fellow ŠKODA driver Gergély Szabó, who was second quickest through the stage despite picking up a left-rear puncture. Delecour was third fastest, 56.8s down on Mikkelsen. The 49-year-old French legend is now third in the overall classification, 1m05.1s behind Mikkelsen.
Andreas Aigner, who tops the IRC Production Cup standings, is also understood to have stopped in the stage in his Stohl Racing Subaru Impreza R4 STI.
Crews are now heading back to a regroup and service in Sibiu ahead of the second running of the Dobârca stage at 18:22hrs local time.