IRC Rally Zlin: Juho Hanninen on top in close Skoda fight

Skoda has fielded all its works drivers for its home event, and Hanninen, Jan Kopecky and points leader Andreas Mikkelsen have all been involved in a constantly fluctuating lead battle that swung on tyre choices in ever-changing weather.

Hanninen took the early initiative, fell back as Mikkelsen charged into the lead through the middle of the day, and then regained the top spot at the end of the day's second of three loops.

Mikkelsen dropped to third, losing a lot of time on both passes through the Tesak stage. He is now 29.4 seconds off the lead.

Kopecky was only sixth early on, before charging to within a couple of seconds of Mikkelsen on the second loop. Hanninen's late surge pulled him clear of the home favourite though, and Kopecky is now 11.4s adrift in second.

Surprise overnight leader Tomas Kostka remains fourth ahead of sometime works Skoda and Ford World Rally Championship driver Roman Kresta.

Leading positions after SS9:

Pos  Driver             Team/Car             Time/Gap
 1.  Juho Hanninen      Skoda              1h22m57.1s
 2.  Jan Kopecky        Skoda                 + 11.4s
 3.  Andreas Mikkelsen  Skoda UK              + 29.4s
 4.  Tomas Kostka       Rufa Skoda            + 48.1s
 5.  Roman Kresta       Adell Mogul Skoda     + 56.7s
 6.  Robert Barrable    CA1 Skoad           + 3m01.9s
 7.  Karl Kruuda        ME3 Skoda           + 3m05.1s
 8.  Jaromir Tarabus    Ak Skoda            + 3m26.2s
 9.  Andreas Aigner     Stohl Subaru        + 3m32.7s
10.  Michal Solowow     Cersanit Peugeot    + 4m07.2s