From
http://www.andreasmikkelsen.com
Disappointed to miss on championship
Andreas and Ola missed out on taking the Norwegian Rally Championship at the weekend (27 September) after finding out they had miscalculated the minimum finish required to secure the title.
Prior to the final round in Rally Hedmarken, the pair believed that with a 12 point lead they would take the championship even if rival Mads Østberg won the event, provided Mikkelsen were third. They took the rally cautiously as a result and aimed to bring the car home safely in that position. In actual fact Østberg's win and Andreas's third place put them on equal points in the championship standings. The rules state that the champion is decided on number of wins, and if those are also equal, then whichever driver has the better result in the last event becomes series champion.
Andreas and Ola celebrated "winning" the championship and believed Østberg had even congratulated them as they crossed the finish of the final stage. It was only fifteen minutes later that they got the devastating message that they had got it wrong and Østberg was indeed champion.
Andreas said, "I'm absolutely gutted. There's no two ways about it. All along I thought we had to drive for third and I was actually being pretty careful as it would have been terrible to crash out or burn out the car. I could have given a lot more gas and of course I regret not going flat out all the way. Second place would have made me champion. I think quite a few people outside our team knew all along that we had miscalculated and we feel a little foolish that nobody mentioned it, but of course it's nobody's job but ours to know the rules and do the sums correctly. It's been an amazingly close fight all season and the way it ended has been the worst disappointment."
"Anyway there is no point dwelling on what could or should have happened. I'm on my way to Spain for Rally Catalunya and I will put all my energy and focus into the remaining WRC rounds of 2008."