Sata Rallye Açores 2011

The Sata Rallye Açores 2011 was the sixth round of the Intercontinental Rally Challenge 2011 and was also part of the Portuguese Rally Championship. The rally took place on July 14-16, 2011 on São Miguel , the largest island in the Azores .

background

The paddock was in Ponta Delgada , the capital of the Azores. The program included 17 special stages on gravel roads. The first three exams were held on July 14th, nine were to follow on July 15th, and another five on July 16th. The total distance including all planned special stages should have been 205.09 kilometers. However, since two special stages were canceled on the second day, only 179.32 classified kilometers were driven on 15 special stages. 42 teams started, 18 of them reached the finish.

course

After the first special stage, Andreas Mikkelsen took the lead. Because of a defective power steering, however, he then lost time and thus the lead to Juho Hänninen . After the first day, he was 4.3 seconds ahead of Bruno Magalhães and 5.7 seconds on Mikkelsen.

On the second day, the Škoda drivers Hänninen and Mikkelsen had a close exchange of blows and set the best times among themselves. WP5 was canceled because there was a herd of cattle on the runway. On the sixth stage, Guy Wilks retired due to a defective front suspension on his Peugeot. SS9 could not be held either because there were still some broken down vehicles next to the road which, together with the fog, represented a safety risk. The last three special stages of the day were secured by Mikkelsen, who thus reduced his gap to Hänninen to 1.3 seconds. Magalhães and Jan Kopecký fought for third place , but both were already around 50 seconds behind the top.

Mikkelsen briefly took the lead at the beginning of the third day. Kopecký slipped past Magalhães into third place with a best time on SS13. However, on the next stage, Magalhães had to retire due to a gearbox failure. Meanwhile, Hänninen took back the lead from Mikkelsen. With a best time on SS15, Mikkelsen came a little closer, but Hänninen then extended his lead further. In the end, Hänninen won with a 42.3 second advantage over Mikkelsen and 1:46 minutes over Kopecký. With his win, Hänninen took the lead in the IRC again.

Results

Overall rating

Item	driver	Co-driver	vehicle	total time	Residue	Points
1	Juho Hänninen	Mikko Markkula	Škoda Fabia S2000	2: 19: 03.8		25th
2	Andreas Mikkelsen	Ola Fløene	Škoda Fabia S2000	2: 19: 46.1	42.3	18th
3	Jan Kopecký	Petr Starý	Škoda Fabia S2000	2: 20: 49.8	1: 46.0	15th
4th	Bryan Bouffier	Xavier Panseri	Peugeot 207 S2000	2: 22: 40.0	3: 36.2	12
5	Patrik Sandell	Staffan Parmander	Škoda Fabia S2000	2: 23: 37.1	4: 33.3	10
6th	Ricardo Moura	Sancho Eiró	Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution IX	2: 25: 10.8	6: 07.0	8th
7th	Vítor Lopes	Hugo Magalhães	Subaru Impreza WRX STI	2: 28: 55.9	9: 52.1	6th
8th	Vítor Pascoal	Luis Ramalho	Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution X	2: 31: 51.1	12: 47.3	4th
9	Sérgio Silva	Nelson Cordeiro	Subaru Impreza WRX STI	2: 33: 04.1	14: 00.3	2
10	Paulo Maciel	Filipe Gouveira	Citroën Saxo VTS	2: 37: 14.5	18: 10.7	-
11	Fumio Nutahara	Hakaru Ichino	Subaru Impreza R4	2: 37: 14.6	18: 10.8	1

1. ↑ A driver with a vehicle from a manufacturer who was not registered on the IRC came in 10th. Fumio Nutahara therefore moved up in the scoring and was awarded 11th the number of points for 10th place.

Special stages

Day	WP	Time	Surname	length	winner	time	Ø pace	Overall leader
Day 1 (July 14th)	SS1	16:45	Lagoa - Marques 1	13.06 km	Andreas Mikkelsen	8: 41.9	90.09 km / h	Andreas Mikkelsen
	SS2	17:24	Coroa da Mata 1	7.50 km	Bruno Magalhães	6: 25.3	70.08 km / h	Juho Hänninen
	SS3	18:00	Grupo Marques 1	2.00 km	Juho Hänninen	1: 57.4	61.33 km / h
Day 2 (July 15th)	SS4	10:08	Batalha Golfe 1	7.90 km	Juho Hänninen	5: 40.2	83.60 km / h
	SS5	10:43	Feteiras 1	7.47 km	Special test canceled
	SS6	11:08	Sete Cidades 1	18.30 km	Juho Hänninen	13: 46.3	79.73 km / h
	SS7	13:02	Batalha Golfe 2	7.90 km	Andreas Mikkelsen	5: 32.3	85.59 km / h
	SS8	13:37	Feteiras 2	7.47 km	Juho Hänninen	5: 48.7	77.12 km / h
	SS9	14:02	Sete Cidades 2	18.30 km	Special test canceled
	SS10	16:02	Remédios - Água de Pau	7.15 km	Andreas Mikkelsen	4: 56.8	86.73 km / h
	SS11	16:25	Lagoa - Marques 2	13.06 km	Andreas Mikkelsen	8: 29.6	92.26 km / h
	SS12	17:04	Coroa da Mata 2	7.50 km	Andreas Mikkelsen	6: 14.3	72.13 km / h
Day 3 (July 16)	SS13	10:27	Graminhais 1	20.80 km	Jan Kopecký	15: 45.0	79.24 km / h	Andreas Mikkelsen
	SS14	11:25	Tronqueira 1	21.94 km	Juho Hänninen	18: 33.7	70.92 km / h	Juho Hänninen
	SS15	12:57	Grupo Marques 2	2.00 km	Andreas Mikkelsen	1: 59.4	60.30 km / h
	SS16	15:26	Graminhais 2	20.80 km	Juho Hänninen	15: 54.9	78.42 km / h
	SS17	16:24	Tronqueira 2	21.94 km	Patrik Sandell	18: 58.4	69.38 km / h

Web links

• Official website
• Results on eWRC-results.com

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Hänninen decides to lead the Azores opener (Motorsport-Total.com on July 14, 2011)
2. ↑ Azores: Hänninen holds tight leadership (Motorsport-Total.com on July 15, 2011)
3. ↑ Hänninen wins Azores rally (Motorsport-Total.com on July 16, 2011)