15 May 12

New Polo on show
in Austria

Visitors to the 31st Volkswagen GTI gathering in Reifnitz, Austria this week (16-19 May) will be able to get a glimpse of the firm's Polo R WRC, the basis of its bid for glory in the FIA World Rally Championship powered by Nokia from 2013.

More than 100,000 visitors attend the event annually and Volkswagen will carry on a tradition of displaying its latest challenger at the showcase having presented the Scirocco GT40 and Golf24 in the past.

The Austrian event takes place one week prior to the Acropolis Rally in Greece where Volkswagen Motorsport will enter a brace of Skoda Fabia Super 2000s for Sebastien Ogier and Andreas Mikkelsen, who shone on the previous round of the world championship in Argentina last month.

Norwegian Mikkelsen wasn’t originally due to contest the Loutraki-based round but a change to his schedule following a cancelled event means he has now been called up to assist team leader Ogier in carrying out Volkswagen’s ongoing WRC acclimatisation programme. Ogier, from France, was victorious in Greece last year and claimed his maiden WRC podium in the country back in 2009.