Patrik Dinkel: Perfect Season Start in Mallorca

With a flawless performance, 28-year-old Patrik Dinkel, along with co-driver Anna Hinrichs, piloted his newly rebuilt Mitsubishi Lancer Evo VI to the podium at the Rally Sol de Ponent.

The rally started on Friday evening with the setting sun at 6:00 PM at the Port d`Andratx harbor for the first special stage "Coll de Sa Creu – Calvià" over 12.8 kilometers, which had to be completed in two runs. "From the first meter, the feeling in the newly rebuilt Mitsubishi, which was made as a replica of Tommi Mäkinen's 1999 World Championship car, was spot on. We went into the night rest in fourth place behind the favored Rally5 vehicles," Dinkel said, satisfied.

Saturday began with an extremely demanding and varied stage "Sa Coma Freda - Estellencs," which started very narrow and technical with dusty corners and then led extremely fast over country roads. A similar course was also on the fourth stage "Coll des Tords - Coll de Sa Creu": "These are the most impressive tracks I have driven in my career," Hinrichs enthused during the midday service, after they had fought their way up to third place. In the afternoon, the clouds thickened, and it began to drizzle, turning the stages into pure slipways! "The grip conditions went towards zero – there were many slips, and we also had one or two moments to master," the duo beamed at the finish line, as class winners and in third place overall.

In just over two weeks, the next planned event is in Ulm-Einsingen. On the familiar tracks, the duo wants to carry the good flow and achieve a good result.