LOTOS 72nd RALLY POLAND, July 2-5, 2015
2015 FIA World Rally Championship, round 7
For immediate release
Thursday, July 2nd, 2015
NEWS FROM SHAKEDOWN
VOLKSWAGEN’S OGIER AND INGRASSIA QUICKEST IN SHAKEDOWN TEST
· Mikkelsen, Kubica and Latvala tied for second place; Neuville in fifth
MIKOLAJKI (Poland): The French duo of Sébastien Ogier and Julien Ingrassia left it until their third run to set the quickest time of 1min 39.1sec during Thursday morning’s shakedown stage for LOTOS 72nd Rally Poland, round seven of the FIA World Rally Championship.
Poland’s Robert Kubica was the fastest of all the drivers on the first run. He posted a time of 1min 43.5sec and that was 0.8sec inside the time set by Sébastien Ogier. The Pole was not to be denied on the second run either and an improved time of 1min 41.4sec was sufficient for the Ford Fiesta driver to nip inside the 1min 41.5sec set by both Ogier and Ott Tanak.
But Andreas Mikkelsen hit the front on the third run and his time of 1min 40.1sec was four-tenths of a second quicker than the time set by Kubica on his third pass. The Norwegian was in fine form and became the first driver to break through the 1min 40sec barrier with a fourth run of 1min 39.6sec.
But Ogier was not to be denied and the Frenchman returned to action with his third run in the Volkswagen Polo R WRC to hit the front with a shakedown-winning time of 1min 39.1sec. Kubica and Latvala tied Mikkelsen’s time of 1min 38.6sec to move into joint second and Hyundai’s Thierry Neuville finished fifth with a time of 1min 40sec.
Ends
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