Andreas Mikkelsen

[mknight]

Well said mate. I still rate him highly, but his performances in Italy and Poland were for me, quite shocking. Especially when you consider the new parts he had on his car in Poland. Since when was Lefebvre a benchmark for anyone? The slowest wrc driver this year....

As mentioned Lefebvre was also a lot faster than Breen, exactly opposite to what has been the case on all previous outings this year. Not saying Mikkelsen's result was very good, but Lefevbre in Poland certainly wasn't the slowest wrc driver. (clearly faster than Hanninen, Evans, Ostberg and Breen).

Com'on guys! The new homologated parts is not "to suit his driving" - it is to solve C3 "handling issues" or as they say "to make car more versatile". Which means that after changed part you have a lot of development work, so don't expect instant results.
I think Andreas was hired to get some different input (from someone who has been involved in polo development!) and do some development work. That's why, I think, he had only objective - to finish the rally and he did just that.
For me, this quote sums it all up:
Andreas, after powerstage in Poland (he was 3rd): "We gave it a go. This stage is much more enjoyable with better grip. A clean stage and I'm happy to end the rally like this."

I wrote before that his result in PS was the best Citroen PS result this year. (on 8th rally of the season by a hired-in driver).

(Lefevbre was better in Monte cause he had dry stage while others had snow)

there were dry stages as well.

Yes there were dry stages on Saturday, which meant two things
a) Mikkelsen was loosing time as 2nd car on the road in the morning
and
b)got 2x 5th and 1x 3rd place in the afternoon, which is probably where we would expect him had the rally been dry the whole way
(that picture of Neuville is from his puncture on SS16, where Mikkelsen was 5th)