Mikkelsen masters the mud at Sardinia rally

ALGHERO, Italy: Norway’s Andreas Mikkelsen powered his Hyundai into the lead of the Rally of Sardinia on Friday with the usual dust-bowl effect on the dirt roads turned into a mud bath in parts.

At the end of the fifth special Friday morning on this seventh of 13 events on the calendar Belgian Thierry Neuville was second while in third was Estonia’s Ott Tanak of Toyota at 16.4sec.

“Things are going great so far, let’s hope it carries on like this,” said the Norwegian who won the 2nd and 3rd dirt track specials. “It was very muddy in the beginning,” he said.Heavy rain fell overnight Thursday leaving a potential race in a cloud of dust a far clearer proposition for the Belgian Neuville, who doesn’t mind the mud.

“Without the rain we wouldn’t veen have been in the top 8. We had a few frights though, I’ll have to be careful,” said Neuville, the three time world championship runner up who currently tops the leaderboard by 19 points.France’s Sebastien Ogier in a Ford is fourth at just 23sec while Finland’s Teemu Suninen is fifth for Toyota.