Skoda Fabia Super 2000’s triumph at Rally Bohemia
Taking place in the surroundings of Skoda’s headquarters at Mlada Boleslav, Czech Republic, this year's Bohemia Rally was badly affected by bad weather. Of the originally planned 12 special stages and 222 kilometres, the competitors only did five and 60 km, respectively. With three special stage wins, the overall winners are Skoda Motorsport's Juho Hänninen and Mikko Markkula. Their team-mates Jan Kopecky and Petr Stary won the two remaining stages and came second, 14.4 seconds behind the winning crew. To make the “podium sweep” complete for the Skoda Fabia Super 2000, Norwegians Andreas Mikkelsen and Ola Floen in a privately-owned Fabia run by the Italian team MRT, finished third.
Commenting on this year's Bohemia Rally, Head of Skoda Motorsport Michal Hrabanek says: “It's a pity that the rally had to be cut short due to bad weather. The organisers have indeed prepared an exciting and pretty challenging track. In any case, we appreciate any opportunity to appear before local rally fans and Skoda supporters, including our staff. I wish to thank both our crews and the entire team for preparing very well for this event and putting in a really professional performance throughout the rrally. It is absolutely fantastic to see three Skoda crews on the podium“
Juho Hänninen: “Both Mikka and I looked forward to competing on snow, although this event is normally an asphalt one. We did not do much rallying in the end, but we understand that the stages were not at all in good condition. We are glad that we‘ve won here – I spend a lot of time in the Czech Republic these days, both for work reasons and for fun, and so this victory is quite special to me.“
Jan Kopecky: “Bohemia is a great rally, and we looked forward to fighting for every second with Juho and other top competitors. What we did in the end was kind of a sprint, but it's obvious that it was not possible to drive on snow-covered stages with trees fallen over them. Anyway, the organisers did a cracking job - we all know that it was not at all easy. I wish to congratulate Juho on winning today; he really deserves it!“
