Mikkelsen took his first WRC victory

The 26-year-old had just finished the final stage of the rally with the best time and took for granted that he would be number two at this year’s penultimate WRC round. Behind him came Sebastien Ogier, who had a solid lead ahead of the last stage. The Frenchman “never” makes mistakes, but in a left hand corner he came too fast and crashed into a road barrier and took off the right front wheel. This happened seconds after Andreas and his co-driver Ola Fløene had finished the stage and were interviewed. The journalists informed Andreas about the crash, but he did not know what to think at first.

“What are you saying, did I win?” asked Andreas before he actually realized that at his 64th WRC event, he had taken his first victory. Together with Ola, he climbed up on the roof of his VW Polo R WRC and let out all his feelings of pure happiness.

“I just can’t grasp it yet. I have fought so hard for this” he said.

No one can say that he got the victory for free. Andreas and Ola really had to fight to win in Spain. After Friday’s gravel stages, they found themselves in a modest sixth place and no one thought it would be possible to fight for the win. But Andreas still aimed for the podium, even though it was a big gap. But with tarmac under his tyres, he found a great pace on Saturday and Sunday. He climbed to third after Saturday’s stages and saw the opportunity of a second place. Andreas knew that only an incident could take the win from his teammate Sebastien Ogier.

“Ahead of Sunday’s stages, I said that I would work even harder. I had one stage that was completely perfect and that was the last one, when it mattered the most. I can’t even describe the feeling of winning a WRC rally” said the Norwegian.

He has previously been on the podium seven times this season, but that little extra push to put him on top has been missing. He feels sorry for Ogier who had to retire on the last stage, because this is something he has experienced himself.

“This is not the way I want to win, but at the same time I have been so close – the same thing that happened to Ogier happened to me in Sweden. I had the lead going into the final stage, but went off and lost the victory. But now I have definitely put that disappointment behind me and it feels almost unreal to stand here as the winner” said Andreas, who also secured his third place in the championship.

Rally Spain 2015:
MIKKELSEN 3:21:04.8

Latvala +3.1

Sordo +21.2

Østberg +1:06.3

Meeke +1:08.2

Paddon +1:23.3

Prokop +4:14.2

Neuville +8:01.9

Tidemand +10:18.0

Kubica +12:15.0