RallyScotland winner leads Monteposted in RSCOT20 | 01 | 2011

RALLYSCOTLAND WINNER and 2010 IRC champ Juho Hanninen was in dazzling form as he opened a 44.5-second lead over his Skoda team-mate Freddy Loix after the opening day of the Monte Carlo Rally.

Hanninen (pictured) was fastest on the first of the two runs through the St Bonnet stage, then just 0.8s slower than stage winner Loix on the repeat. The stage win eased the Belgian further ahead of leading Peugeot driver Petter Solberg in their battle for second place.

Solberg finished the opening leg10.8s behind Loix and 0.2s ahead of fourth-placed Stephane Sarrazin. Darlington's Guy Wilks, who won the inaugural RallyScotland in 2009, moved himself up to fifth for Peugeot UK, with the Skoda of Jan Kopecky menacingly raising his pace in the works Skoda to move push Bryan Bouffier (Peugeot) down to seventh.

But there was disappointment and frustration for Skoda UK newcomer Andres Mikkelson. The Norwegian, second in last year's RallyScotland, clipped a wall on the opening stage and was forced to stop to make repairs.

"It was only four corners into the rally, or something," he explained afterwards. The corner tightened and I didn't have it in my notes. We just clipped the wall and got a puncture. It's a shame, a real shame. Stupid."

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Jim McGill