Title-hunting Mikkelsen strengthens WRC2 bid in Greece

Mikkelsen, who suffered tyre damage on three separate occasions during the rally’s opening leg, delivered a majestic comeback drive on Saturday to climb from 12th to first in a Škoda Fabia RS Rally2.

However, an updated notional time issued by the rally organisers on Sunday morning dropped the Norwegian back behind Greensmith by 12.0sec with just three stages remaining.

Drama would be just around the corner for Greensmith, however, with the Briton reporting a transmission issue on his similar Toksport-run Fabia. Although he was able to make it back to the final service, Mikkelsen had overtaken him in the penultimate stage and won the four-day fixture by 10.3sec.

"This is a special one," said Mikkelsen after extending his championship lead to 16 points over Yohan Rossel, who completed the podium 1min 15.7sec behind Greensmith in a Citroën C3 Rally2.

"After Friday, everything looked so dark and we decided we had nothing to lose. We drove the fastest we could on every corner the whole rally."

Adrien Fourmaux led throughout Friday but fell out of contention when he stopped to change a wheel on his M-Sport Ford Fiesta Rally2. The Frenchman recovered to take fourth, edging his Luxembourg-based team-mate Grégoire Munster by 18.6sec. Rounding out the top six was Kajetan Kajetanowicz in another Škoda.