Andreas Mikkelsen drove his M-Sport Ford Fiesta S2000 into fifth in the Geko Ypres Rally. The Norwegian was the highest-placed Ypres Rally rookie.

"I'm very happy with my result here. It was not easy to drive on these roads as a rookie. I'm sure I can go faster next time I will be here", commented the 21 year old Norwegian after he bagged his first four IRC points in Belgium.

The Norwegian and his co-driver, Ola Fløene, were delayed by a puncture on Friday's second stage. But despite being in seventh place overnight, they gradually climbed the leaderboard to finish fifth with their Ford Fiesta S2000, on Hankook tyres, on Saturday.

"Our goal was top six this weekend, and everything ran just as planned. We had no problems with the car. The only problem was a lack of experience on these very difficult roads", said Mikkelsen.

Mikkelsen and Fløene will do seven rounds in this year's IRC with their M-Sport Ford Fiesta S2000 and their next rally will be Sata Rallye Açores, 15-17 July.

Top ten Geko Ypres Rally
1 Freddy Loix/Frederic Miclotte (Skoda Fabia S2000) 2h35m36.9s
2 Jan Kopecky/Petr Stary (Skoda Fabia S2000) +22.1s
3 Thierry Neuville/Nicolas Klinger (Peugeot 207 S2000) +2m05.5s
4 Bernd Casier/Francis Caesemaeker (Skoda Fabia S2000) +4m06.1s
5 Andreas Mikkelsen/Ola Fløene (M-Sport Ford Fiesta S2000) +5m20.9s
6 Bruno Magalhaes/Carlos Magalhaes (Peugeot 207 S2000) +6m06.2s
7 Michal Solowow/Maciej Baran (M-Sport Ford Fiesta S2000) +7m24.5s
8 Luca Betti/Pierangelo Scalvini (Peugeot 207 S2000) +9m37.6s
9 Corrado Fontana/Nicola Arena (Peugeot 207 S2000) +9m53.0s
10 Maciej Oleksowicz/Andrzej Obrebowski (M-Sport Ford Fiesta S2000) +10m39.0s

Finnish Jari Ketomaa won his second consecutive Super 2000 World Rally Championship (S-WRC) round in the Algarve this weekend and is steadily closing the gap on the current series leader, Spanish Xevi Pons.

Six Ford Fiesta Super 2000 cars will make their way to Portugal next week where four of the crews will take part in the fifth round of the Super World Rally Championship category (S-WRC). Series leader, Spaniard Xevi Pons, will aim to hold onto his current lead but will face tough challenge, especially from Finnish Jari Ketomaa who won his first S-WRC round in New Zealand earlier this month.

This year’s Vodafone Rally de Portugal is in its 44th year and is renowned for warm sunny weather, making it a hotspot for rally fans from all over the world. Spectator numbers are expected to be high and the super special stages and service park will be based in the Algarve Stadium just north of the regional capital, Faro.

The previous WRC round in New Zealand saw a clean sweep of podium finishes for the Fiesta S2000s in the S-WRC category with Jari Ketomaa beating stiff competition from Xevi Pons, Martin Prokop and Janne Tuohino. The Fiesta S2000 has now won the opening three rounds of the category and Pons continues to lead the championship overall.

This year's Rally New Zealand returned to Auckland for the first time since 2005, enabling rally organisers to reintroduce fast, flowing stages from 2005's WRC rally alongside four brand new stages comprising of mixed gravel and tarmac road surfaces. A new service park at Queen's Wharf was built beside Auckland's harbour where thousands of lively WRC fans flocked to watch the official ceremonial start on Thursday evening.

The 40^th edition of Rally New Zealand will see four Ford Fiesta Super 2000s make their way to the southern hemisphere for the fifth round of the FIA World Rally Championship (WRC).  Xevi Pons has already won Super World Rally Championship (SWRC) rounds in both Sweden and Mexico earlier this year and his competitors will have to push hard to prevent the Spaniard from winning his third consecutive victory out in New Zealand.

The previous WRC round in Turkey saw two Ford Fiesta S2000s battle it out in brutally rough stages to the north of Istanbul. The three-day event finished with Dennis Kuipers in a fantastic ninth position overall and the 24-year-old broke a new record as the first ever Dutch driver to score WRC points in an S2000.

Rally New Zealand is the longest running championship event in the southern hemisphere and holds the record for being the closest championship finish in WRC history when the gap between winner and runner up in 2007’s Rally New Zealand was only 0.3 seconds.

After a year’s absence from the WRC calendar, the 2010 rally will be returning 125kms north-east of its previous base in Hamilton to the country’s largest city, Auckland. The event will officially begin on Thursday evening with a ceremonial start in the Viaduct Harbour located on the waterfront of Auckland’s central business district.