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The defending IRC champion is one of 57 drivers contesting the gravel event, which consists of 12 stages over a competitive distance of 200.20 kilometres.
Mikkelsen will head out to the opening stage, Dobârca 1, at 13:30hrs local time in the ŠKODA UK Motorsport Fabia Super 2000 he shares with co-driver Ola Fløene, followed two minutes later by Sepp Wiegand and Timo Gottschalk’s similar ŠKODA Auto Deutschland entry.
Saintéloc Racing’s Mathieu Arzeno is the leading Peugeot 207 Super 2000 runner in third with Patrik Flodin fourth on the road in his Hankook Petter Solberg Engineering M-Sport Ford Fiesta S2000.
French rallying legend François Delecour starts fifth in his Visit Romania-backed Peugeot with leading Romanian driver Marco Tempestini sixth on his competitive debut in a ŠKODA Fabia.
IRC Production Cup leader Andreas Aigner is seventh on the road in his Stohl Racing Subaru Impreza R4 STI. Swiss Michaël Burri, making his IRC debut, goes eighth in the second Saintéloc Peugeot. Valentin Porcisteanu starts ninth with Hungarian Gergo Szabó completing the top 10 in his Eurosol Racing-run Fabia.
Harry Hunt is the leading IRC 2WD Cup starter in 19th followed by category rivals Martin Kangur (Honda Civic Type R) and Robert Consani (Renault Clio R3).
All 57 starters will run in two-minute intervals. The full start list for day one can be found by clicking here.
Mikkelsen Andreas
168 pt.
Kopecký Jan
101 pt.
Hänninen Juho
93 pt.
Wiegand Sepp
73 pt.
Consani Robert
97 pt.
Arai Toshi
86 pt.
Aigner Andreas
83 pt.
Tempestini Marco
63 pt.
Hunt Harry
126 pt.
Consani Robert
87 pt.
Kangur Martin
51 pt.
Campedelli Simone
50 pt.
Breen Craig