Third Citroën rally for Mikkelsen
Andreas Mikkelsen will make a third appearance for Citroën's WRC squad at August's ADAC Rallye Deutschland.
The former Volkswagen driver was drafted in to Citroën's WRC team at Rally Italia Sardegna alongside Kris Meeke. But after another crash-related retirement for the Briton, Mikkelsen was named as his replacement for this week's Orlen 74th Rally Poland.
Mikkelsen will miss the following round, Neste Rally Finland, when Meeke will return as part of a three-car line-up with Craig Breen and Khalid Al Qassimi.
But Mikkelsen will be back aboard the C3 when the championship moves to Germany for round 10, replacing Stéphane Lefebvre as team-mate to Meeke and Breen.
“It’s really good to have another opportunity to drive with the team in Germany," the Norwegian told wrc.com in Poland.
"Of course, the rally is asphalt so that will be another new experience for me in the C3, but I’m looking forward to it. However, that’s in the future. For now, the focus is on achieving a good result here this weekend."
Following the Norwegian's debut in Sardinia, Citroën Racing boss Yves Matton said Mikkelsen had encouraged the team to "explore some new ideas" to improve the performance of the C3 World Rally Car, which up to now has been lacklustre.
After experimenting with new components at a pre-event test, Citroën requested FIA homologation upgrades of a new rear differential rail and a mechanical ‘joker’ in order to modify the torque split between the axles. Mikkelsen's car in Poland will run both upgrades.
Before the rally Matton also talked of making "major changes to our organisation, our methods and our principles." And in Poland there was evidence of a shake up in the technical department. Christophe Besse joins the squad as technical director, replacing Laurent Fregosi who has moved to another role within the company.
Besse has previous form with Citroën's WRC team and was head of test team and race engineer between 2003 and 2006. He has also held a number of racing engineering positions within the Formula One and World Endurance Championships.
