Despite taking fourth place on last weekend’s Rally Sweden, Andreas Mikkelsen said after the event that he believed he could have finished in a higher position.
Mikkelsen was second with four stages left on the snow event but ended up fourth by the end of Sunday’s action as both Hyundai teammate Thierry Neuville and Citroen driver Esapekka Lappi leapfrogged the Norwegian.
Talking after the end of the final stage, Mikkeslen said: “It is a pretty good team result for here; third and fourth gives us important points, but we know it could have been better.”
“We gave it all we could this weekend, and it was an exciting right to the end. Of course, we would have preferred to finish on the podium but congratulations to Thierry for his result.”
He added: “In conditions like we have faced, it is a high-risk strategy to push too hard. Today, we wanted to maintain a good pace but not do anything crazy to jeopardise our position.”
Since the end of Rally Sweden, the Hyundai team have announced Mikkeslen will sit out the Tour de Corse in late March in favour of running tarmac specialists Sébastien Loeb and Dani Sordo in a bid to try and earn more manufacturer points. The Norwegian will compete in Rally Mexico between March 7-10 as planned.