Mecsek Rally 2011

The Canon 45th Mecsek Rally 2011 was the eighth round of the Intercontinental Rally Challenge 2011 . The rally was held from September 9-11 , 2011 in the Mecsek Mountains in Hungary .

background

The Mecsek Rally was on the IRC calendar for the first time in 2011. The paddock was in Pécs at the foot of the Mecsek Mountains. In the old town of Pécs the rally opened on September 9th and the shake down was held. The actual competition took place on the following two days. The program consisted of 14 special stages over 251.86 kilometers. After a test was canceled, 237.84 kilometers were covered.

We drove on paved roads that allowed an unusually high speed. On no special stage was the average speed of the fastest driver below 105 km / h. A maximum of almost 130 km / h was reached. In this respect, the Mecsek Rally was roughly on par with Rally Finland , the fastest rally on the World Rally Championship calendar .

For Juho Hänninen , the leader of the championship before the rally, his employer Škoda had not planned to take part in the Mecsek rally. The rest of the top IRC pilots were all represented at the start. Škoda Deutschland again fielded its two Škoda Fabia S2000s for drivers Matthias Kahle and Mark Wallenwein . In addition, Red Bull Škoda Hermann Gassner junior made his first appearance in the IRC. Even Felix Herbold took over as the fourth German in his Ford Fiesta S2000 part in the rally. The championship leader there, Beppo Harrach , traveled from Austria in his Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution IX . In the evaluation of the IRC a total of 47 teams started the rally, of which 31 finally reached the finish.

course

At the start of the rally, Škoda UK driver Andreas Mikkelsen set a high pace and immediately took the lead in the overall standings. He gradually built up his cushion on Thierry Neuville, who initially came second in the Peugeot 207 S2000 , to over 14 seconds. From the third special stage, Škoda works driver Jan Kopecký increased the pressure. He now achieved some best times and had already moved up to second place in the overall standings after the fifth test. On SS5, Guy Wilks and local hero Frigyes Turán, who were also well positioned up to now, had to give up the sails. While a water leak on Wilks Peugeot caused an engine failure, Turán retired due to an accident. After seven special stages, the first day was already over, because SS8 had to be canceled for safety reasons. By the end of the first day Kopecký had reduced his gap to Mikkelsen from 16.5 seconds to 8.7 seconds. Neuville followed in third place, who had already lost touch and was now 21.4 seconds behind the top.

On the morning of the second day, Andreas Mikkelsen attacked again and continued to pull away from Kopecký. He then moved on to managing his comfortable lead and already looked like the sure winner. But on SS13 the young Norwegian lost control of his Škoda in a slippery corner and hit a tree, which meant the end of the rally for him. The new leader was now Jan Kopecký. Thierry Neuville followed in second place, who set the best times from SS11 and tried to catch Kopecký. Despite a gap of 8.1 seconds before the last special stage, Neuville finally came within 0.8 seconds of Kopecký. This was the closest finish in the history of the IRC up to that point. With his second win in a row, Kopecký took the lead in the championship. Freddy Loix came in third, one minute behind the winner. Hermann Gassner junior also drove a good rally, finishing in fifth place. Beppo Harrach finished tenth and thus just managed to secure the last point. While Mark Wallenwein was 14th, Matthias Kahle finished the rally in 19th place in the IRC ranking. Felix Herbold, who was last in 13th place, retired on the last special stage with a defective alternator.

Results

Overall rating

Item	driver	Co-driver	vehicle	total time	Residue	Points
1	Jan Kopecký	Petr Starý	Škoda Fabia S2000	2: 00: 06.7		25th
2	Thierry Neuville	Nicolas Gilsoul	Peugeot 207 S2000	2: 00: 07.5	0.8	18th
3	Freddy Loix	Frédéric Miclotte	Škoda Fabia S2000	2: 01: 06.7	1: 00.0	15th
4th	Bryan Bouffier	Xavier Panseri	Peugeot 207 S2000	2: 01: 42.3	1: 35.6	12
5	Hermann Gassner junior	Timo Gottschalk	Škoda Fabia S2000	2: 02: 39.2	2: 32.5	10
6th	György Aschenbrenner	Zsuzsa Pikó	Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution IX	2: 02: 44.9	2: 38.2	8th
7th	Toni Gardemeister	Tapio Suominen	Škoda Fabia S2000	2: 03: 12.3	3: 05.6	6th
8th	Róbert Bútor	Igor Bacigál	Peugeot 207 S2000	2: 03: 23.5	3: 16.8	4th
9	Bruno Magalhães	Paulo Grave	Peugeot 207 S2000	2: 03: 58.4	3: 51.7	2
10	Beppo Harrach	Andreas Schindlbacher	Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution IX	2: 04: 20.7	4: 14.0	1

Special stages

Day	WP	Time	Surname	length	winner	time	Ø pace	Overall leader
Day 1 (September 10th)	SS1	9:08	Hetvehely 1	18.21 km	Andreas Mikkelsen	8: 50.2	123.64 km / h	Andreas Mikkelsen
	SS2	10:06	Orfű 1	28.00 km	Andreas Mikkelsen	14: 16.4	117.70 km / h
	SS3	12:34	Pécsvárad 1	12.00 km	Jan Kopecký	6: 46.0	106.40 km / h
	SS4	13:37	Alsómocsolád 1	14.02 km	Andreas Mikkelsen	6: 53.2	122.15 km / h
	SS5	16:10	Hetvehely 2	18.21 km	Jan Kopecký	8: 47.6	124.25 km / h
	SS6	17:08	Orfű 2	28.00 km	Jan Kopecký	14: 10.5	118.52 km / h
	SS7	19:36	Pécsvárad 2	12.00 km	Jan Kopecký	6: 49.1	105.60 km / h
	SS8	20:39	Alsómocsolád 2	14.02 km	Special test canceled
Day 2 (September 11th)	SS9	9:08	Zobák 1	12.00 km	Andreas Mikkelsen	6: 51.2	105.06 km / h
	SS10	9:51	Árpádtető 1	24.00 km	Jan Kopecký Andreas Mikkelsen	11: 09.8	128.99 km / h
	SS11	10:44	Nyárásvölgy 1	17.70 km	Thierry Neuville	8: 29.9	124.97 km / h
	SS12	13:17	Zobák 2	12.00 km	Thierry Neuville	6: 48.4	105.78 km / h
	SS13	14:00	Árpádtető 2	24.00 km	Thierry Neuville	11: 06.4	129.65 km / h	Jan Kopecký
	SS14	14:53	Nyárásvölgy 2	17.70 km	Thierry Neuville	8: 26.4	125.83 km / h

Web links

• Official website
• Results on eWRC-results.com

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Mecsek rally: Mikkelsen leads just ahead of Kopecky (Motorsport-Total.com on September 10, 2011)
2. ↑ Mecsek rally: Kopecky wins again wafer-thin (Motorsport-Total.com on September 11, 2011)