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Zlín, 28 August, 2011 – Seasoned by a fierce fight for every tenth of a second between two teammates, the 2011 Barum Czech Rally Zlín was dramatic until the last moment. At the end of the day, Jan Kopecký of ŠKODA Motorsport (factory team) won his first IRC event this season, only 1.2 sec ahead of second-placed Loix! Juho Hänninen came third to complete a podium sweep for ŠKODA that is celebrating a second hat-trick in a row and a sixth in the entire history of the IRC and has repeated its result from last year's Barum Rally. The first three places in the current IRC rankings remain occupied by drivers of Fabia Super 2000s - Hänninen 1st, Kopecký 2nd and Loix 3rd.

The rally started with Friday's super special stage in the streets of Zlín. Watched by about 40 thousand people gathered along the track, the drivers' had to cope with an eight-kilometre city circuit. The fastest of them was Juho Hänninen, followed by Andreas Mikkelsen (- 0.5 sec) and Jan Kopecký (- 0.6 sec), all of them in Fabia Super 2000s.

Saturday's programme included eight stages (133 kilometres). After making a fairly slow start in the morning, Juho Hänninen was a lot faster in the second half of the day to move up from sixth place after Stage 2 to the runner-up position after Day 1, but so was also Freddy Loix who has achieved exactly the same time and was sharing second place with Hänninen before the final day. Andreas Mikkelsen put in an excellent performance and was just behind leader Kopecký until Stage 7 when he had a tyre defect, a bad luck as a consequence of which fell from second to sixth place. Kopecký moved up to the lead after Stage 3 and then continued increasing it patiently stage by stage.

On Saturday night the surroundings of Zlín were hit by a heavy rainfall after which the temperature fell down dramatically and most of the track, primarily its forest parts, got wet before Sunday's programme that included the final six stages. Leader Kopecký started the day with a power steering defect that cost him 15 seconds in Stage 10 and his comfortable lead he'd gained on Day 1, as a result of which all of the first three drivers of Fabia Super 2000s, i.e. Kopecký, Loix and Hänninen, suddenly found themselves squeezed within just a few seconds. Andreas Mikkelsen put in a brave performance again to fight for fourth place overall with Neuville after Bouffier's drop-out.

Coming six seconds behind Neville, Mikkelsen finished fifth in the end. The event saw a fierce but fair fight for victory between Kopecký and Loix, two drivers of factory Fabias, in which every tenth of a second was important. After 15 stages, Jan Kopecký & Petr Starý won the rally, only 1.2 sec ahead of Freddy Loix and Kopecký's teammate Hänninen who came third – ŠKODA has repeated its podium sweep from last year's Barum Rally and is celebrating a second hat-trick this year and a sixth in the IRC history.

Jan Kopecký: "We have made up for our failure at last year's Barum Rally. We have been waiting for an IRC victory for quite some time, so we are more than happy to have won our home rally and to have beaten all the competition here. Its simply great, words are not coming easily, but I wish to thank all the guys around me – Petr (Kopecký's codriver), the whole team, the fans... we are still prepared to fight for the IRC title, and this has been an important step on our way. Our thanks go to the fantastic fans here, the atmosphere is breathtaking."

Freddy Loix: "Obviously, we wanted to win, because we too are fighting for the IRC title, but we have to be fair and congratulate Jan on winning here. Going even faster than we did would have been too risky, yet we were doing our best till the end".

Juho Hänninen: "This Barum Rally has been difficult as usual, and the result is certainly good for the championship and great for the whole team. The car worked perfectly. Congratulations to our team colleagues."

Head of the ŠKODA Motorsport team Michal Hrabánek: "We have to be and we actually are more than happy. Winning our home rally and sweeping the podium is the maximum achievable – the result simply couldn't have been better. I wish to thank all our team members for their excellent work throughout this event, as well as all Fabia crews for putting in a great performance and showing a number of spectacular duels."

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