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Pécs, 10 September, 2011 – Day 1 of the Mecsek Rally that is part of the IRC for the first time in history saw exciting duels between ŠKODA Fabia Super 2000s. The standings are topped by Andreas Mikkelsen of ŠKODA UK Motorsport who is 8.7 sec ahead of Jan Kopecký of ŠKODA Motorsport (factory team). These two drivers were the only winners of Day 1 stages – while Mikkelsen won three, Kopecký was fastest in four. Thierry Neuville in a Peugeot is third, 12.7 seconds behind Kopecký, Loix is fourth, a further 11.3 seconds behind Neuville.

The event started already on Friday with a 1.2-km-long prologue in the streets of Pécs which, however, is not included in the overall results. In a sunny weather, with temperatures climbing over 30 degrees Celsius, Saturday saw a number of exciting duels between Jan Kopecký and Andreas Mikkelsen, both in Fabia Super 2000s. All of the Day 1 stages were very fast, with average speeds getting over 120 km/h. There are crowds of spectators along the track, and many of them dangerously near it. In this respect, the situation got critical in Stage 4 that was scheduled as the last stage of Day 1 but was eventually cancelled for safety reasons.

Jan Kopecký: "The second half of Day 1 was better than the beginning. We spent some time looking for the right settings. Andreas was very fast, but we are doing our best to catch up with him and it will surely be an exciting fight on Sunday. There are many fans along the track, any many of them in dangerous places. It was a pity for us that the last stage was cancelled, we had a good pace".

Freddy Loix: "We made a good start to this event, but then we started losing. The car is great, we just have to get faster if we want to think about finishing higher. The track is incredibly fast."

The Hungarian Rally ends on Sunday with the final six stages (107 kilometres).

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