All eyes on Mikkelsen on fast, winding Polish gravel roads
The second oldest rally in the world, the Polish rally, began in 1921 and has continued until the present with hiatuses due to political and military disputes during the 1930s and 40s.
In 1973 it was one of the 13 rounds of the newly established FIA World Rally Championship (WRC).
It was dropped from the calendar the next year, only to return in 2009 after which it was once again removed as a WRC event.
In 2014 Poland proved to be a successful candidate for a round of the WRC and it has become an annual event.
The eighth round of this year’s WRC will get underway tomorrow in Mikolajki, a small tourist town in the lakes region, near to the borders with Lithuania, Belarus and Kaliningrad.
The teams will face very fast gravel roads, topped only by Finland, winding through the fields and forests of the surrounding countryside.
The 49 entries face a total of 1 422 km with 23 special stages totalling 326 km, and will end on Sunday.
Hyundai Motorsport’s Thierry Neuville will be trying hard to grab the championship lead from M-Sport WRT’s Sebastien Ogier who heads the title chase on 141 points to the Belgian’s 123.
Neuville will be chased by Sardinia winner, Ford’s Ott Tanak, on 108 – just one point ahead of Toyota Gazoo Racing’s Jari Matti Latvala.
Chris Meeke will hand his Citroen to Andreas Mikkelsen for this round.
The Norwegian was the only Citroen driver to finish in the top ten in Sardinia and has an enviable record in Poland with two second places and a win making him a firm favourite for this year’s event.
M-Sport WRT head the manufacturer’s title chase on 234 points ahead of Hyundai on 194, Toyota Gazoo in third with 143 points and the Citroen Total Abu Dhabi WRT on 97.