Andreas Mikkelsen delivered the new Škoda Fabia RS Rally2 a win on its debut, taking victory on the Lausitz Rally in Germany.
The successor to the still successful Fabia Rally2 evo – which has already won the European Rally Championship in the hands of Efrén Llarena and will be the champion’s car in WRC2 too regardless of who wins – the Fabia RS Rally2 was originally supposed to make its debut on Rally Finland in the World Rally Championship.
But supply chain issues delayed that timeline, and instead Škoda focused on making sure it had enough parts to deliver to customers before the car made its first competitive start.
Although he was beaten to the opening stage win by Anders Grøndal in the older generation of Škoda, Mikkelsen was the class of a competitive field.
Quickest on six of the event’s 10 stages, Mikkelsen’s eventual winning margin was 21.6 seconds over 2020 Junior WRC champion Tom Kristensson.
Kristensson was the only other driver to win a stage, edging Mikkelsen on SS3, SS8 and SS10, in what was an impressive performance.
His Hyundai was the only non Škoda in the top five.
