Andreas Mikkelsen won the 5th round of the Norwegian Rally Championship with his Ford Focus WRC this weekend. The Aurskog-Holand Rally, just 60 km east/north of Oslo, covered a total of eight stages on gravel.

He was over two minutes ahead of group N driver Sveinung Bieltvedt aboard a Subaru Impreza WRX.

Mikkelsen led the rally from the start, when his maiden rival Mads Ostberg faced a puncture just some hundred meters after the start of the very first stage. Ostberg had to stop and change his Subaru Impreza WRC's tyre, losing more than three minutes in the process. In the end he was 3rd overall, 2:36 behind Mikkelsen.

After his win Mikkelsen leads the championship with 126 points, while Ostberg is five points behind the Ford driver. Anders Grondal holds 3rd although he had to retire on the first stage with technical problems on Saturday. Last weekend Grondal crashed his Subaru in a Hill Climb event, and therefore drove one of Andreas Mikkelsen's Ford Focus cars on this event.

The next round of the Norwegian Rally Championship will be the tarmac-based Rally Larvik on the 6th of September.

Aurskog-Holand Rally, round 5 of 7, Norwegian Rally Championship:

1 Andreas Mikkelsen/Ola Floene, Ford Focus WRC 44 min 47,4 sec

2 Sveinung Bieltvedt/Roger Eilertsen, Subaru Impreza STi +2:26.0

3 Mads Ostberg/Ole Kristian Unnerud Subaru Impreza WRC +2:36.7

4 Morten Ostberg/Christian Ostberg, Subaru Impreza WRC +2:42.0

5 Bernt Kollevold/Thomas Myhre Hansen, Mitsubishi EVO +2:46.8

6 Christian August Selmer/Nils-Henrik Holmen, Ford Focus WRC +2:50.8

7 Anders Kjaer Trond/Svendsen, Subaru Impreza STi +3:14.9

8 Oyvind Sulland/Jorgen Nordhagen, Subaru Impreza STi +3:48.2

9 Geir Ingar Mythe/Wenche Fonnebo, Subaru Impreza STi N +4:13.3

10 Kenneth Johnsrod/Veronica Engan, Mitsubishi EVO 9 +5:09.3

(...)

Championship standings

1. Andreas Mikkelsen, 126 points

2. Mads Ostberg, 121

3. Anders Grondal, 82

4. Morten Ostberg, 47

5. Christian Selmer, 39

6. Christian Andresen, 33