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Perth, 9 October, 2011 – The Rally of Scotland has a sweet taste for ŠKODA – thanks to ŠKODA UK Motorsport's Andreas Mikkelsen & Ola Floene in a factoryprepared Fabia Super 2000 who are celebrating their first IRC victory and Juho Hänninen & Mikko Markkula of ŠKODA Motorsport (factory team) who came second, ŠKODA has secured victory in this year's Manufacturers Cup and thus successfully defended its title from last year. The other factory crew, Jan Kopecký & Petr Starý, put in a reliable performance to finish fifth in the end. Six drivers in total are still in the game for the title in the Drivers category.

For the first time in the history of the IRC series, the event in Scotland was a coefficientbased one (1.5x). The possibility of winning a larger number of points than usual attracted all of the top-ranking IRC drivers except for Freddy Loix. Scheduled to extend over three days, the event took place in a typically Scottish weather, i.e. high humidity, wind and - particularly on Saturday - rain. The tracks were soaked and muddy, and Saturday's final stage had to be cancelled due to unfavourable on-track conditions. One of the milestones of the first half of the event came in Stage 5 when Guy Wilks in a Peugeot, topping the standings at that point, had an accident. As a consequence, Andreas Mikkelsen in a Fabia Super 2000 who drove fantastically well and fast took over the lead and then kept increasing it comfortably until the end. Realising that there was no space for mistakes on the soaked track, the ŠKODA Motorsport drivers played it rather careful. It took Juho Hänninen some time to find the right rhythm and he could not do better than fifth in the early stages of the event but he got faster in the second half to fight his way up the standings to second place overall. His teammate Jan Kopecký had a premiere at the Rally of Scotland and struggled hard with the broken roads. Yet he put in a well-balanced performance to come fifth, a result that will be included in his Championship score and that keeps him at the top of the standings before the last event in Cyprus.

Commenting on the Rally of Scotland, Head of ŠKODA Motorsport Michal Hrabánek says: "Congratulations to Andreas on his brilliant performance and his first IRC victory. Our ambition for the Rally of Scotland was to avoid silly mistakes, and I am pleased that the crews driving the factory Fabias followed the team's instructions throughout the event and that we have defended our last year's victory in the Manufacturers Cup. I wish to thank all the members of our team, the conditions here were really tough. It would be great if one of the ŠKODA Fabia Super 2000 drivers won the IRC Championship title at this year's last event in Cyprus."

Andreas Mikkelsen: "What a fantastic weekend! We were so close to winning in Hungary and even closer in Sanremo, but we could not have found a better place to score our first IRC win on ŠKODA UK's home event. The feeling is just amazing and this result gives us something to really build on for our next rally in Cyprus. I really enjoyed driving on these Scottish roads last year, but twelve months ago it was completely dry and this year the conditions have been so different. The stages this time were wet, muddy and very tricky. It was easy to make a mistake, and I am very pleased to have gone as quickly as we have done this weekend. I'm very proud of what the ŠKODA UK Motorsport team, Ola and myself have accomplished here. I'm really happy."

Juho Hänninen: "We are pleased to have had this opportunity to appear in an IRC event again, and we are really glad that Mikko and myself have contributed to defending ŠKODA's victory in the Manufacturers Cup. We have also won some important points in the Drivers category. Congratulations to Andreas on his first IRC victory."

Jan Kopecký: "I have never driven in conditions like this, it was extremely difficult. We did our best and got more and more confident throughout the event, but we did not want to play it too risky – many of the top-ranking drivers made mistakes here. We have remained at the top of the overall standings and now we will place maximum focus on the last event of this year's Championship which will certainly be a fierce battle."

The IRC Championship will climax in Cyprus over the first weekend of November – the last rally of this season will offer double the normal points and will determine the final standings in the IRC Drivers category.

IRC standings before the last event*:

Kopecký (ŠKODA) – 131 points
Hänninen (ŠKODA) – 125 points
Neuville (Peugeot) – 112 points
Mikkelsen (ŠKODA) – 111.5 points
Bouffier (Peugeot) – 110.5 points
Loix (ŠKODA) – 103 points

Manufacturers Cup*:

ŠKODA 316.5 points
Peugeot 241.5 points
Ford 110 points

*Only the best seven events are included

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