ŠkodaPortal.cz Simply clever

In Yalta, 3 June – Day 2 of the Ukraine Rally saw a real tour de force from Juho Hänninen of ŠKODA Motorsport (factory team). Despite a 10-second penalty he'd got yesterday, Juho climbed up from 11th place after Day 1 to the top of the rankings after Day 2. His teammate Jan Kopecký is third, one minute behind him.

A technically challenging track in an area of broken topography and high air temperatures – that was the combination the drivers had to face in Friday's six stages. Juho Hänninen, 11th after yesterday, put in an excellent performance today. Getting gradually faster and faster, he achieved the fastest times in the last two stages, which has earned him the top position in the current rankings. His teammate Kopecký had a problem with the power steering in today's last stage. Yet he is third after Day 2.

Commenting on his leap to the leading position, Juho Hänninen says: "After the penalisation yesterday, we wanted to show that our ambitions were higher than 11th place. The routes here are difficult, and the risk of a defect is high, so we had to drive fast but carefully. Now we are in the lead, and we certainly want to defend this position tomorrow".

Jan Kopecký: "Except for the last stage and a small problem with the power steering, this has been a good day. We have moved up to third place, which is certainly positive. We will see tomorrow – we still have many kilometres ahead of us, and the routes here are rather treacherous".

The Yalta Rally continues tomorrow – the programme of the last day includes six stages (117 kilometres in total).

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