Volkswagen team principal Jost Capito says Andreas Mikkelsen is capable of winning his World Rally Championship event this season.
The Norwegian ran at the front of the field throughout Rally Sweden earlier this month. Mikkelsen knows the Swedish event and its conditions well, and Capito says VW will have no qualms about giving him a green light to push that hard on future rallies where he is similarly confident.
“He did a fantastic job learning last year and this year we said that where he is confident and he has done the rally a couple of times then he can fight for the podium,” said Capito. “Sweden was the first of these and I think he did a fantastic job, not just fighting for the podium, but also for the victory.
“What’s very impressive is that this was not a result which was given to him by failure or mistakes of others, he was fighting from the beginning, setting the fastest time in the first stage, and then he was on the top all of the weekend.
“That was much more than we have thought [possible]. We have expected a lot of him, but it was much more [that he delivered] and everybody in the team has been impressed by his performance.”
Capito would not be drawn regarding the other events where Mikkelsen would be allowed to push for wins.
Asked if he thought the VW junior driver could win this year, Capito said: “He could have won in Sweden…”
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