Mikkelsen is suffering from a subdued run of form and it marks the second time in four rallies that he has been demoted from Hyundai\u2019s three-strong driver line-up.<\/p>\n

Loeb will join title contender Thierry Neuville and Dani Sordo for the Portuguese round.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis decision was not taken lightly,\u201d said Team Director Andrea Adamo.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe need to move forward as a team and make the most effective use of our versatile crew line-up.<\/p>\n

\u201cS\u00e9bastien and [co-driver] Daniel [Elena] had a competitive event in Chile, and have found a good feeling in the car on gravel.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe felt their contribution would allow us to increase our points-scoring potential in Portugal.\u201d<\/p>\n

Mikkelsen will return to Hyundai\u2019s driver line-up for the following round in Italy.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are trying hard to find a way to get Andreas\u2019s confidence back and we are sure he will approach his next event, Sardinia, in the same way he was able to in Argentina,\u201d said Adamo.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen you have a line-up like ours and look at the results from Chile, it\u2019s necessary to react quickly.\u201d<\/p>\n

Hyundai leads the Manufacturers\u2019 Championship by 29 points.<\/p>\n

Source: Motorsport Week<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Hyundai has benched Andreas Mikkelsen for the upcoming Rally Portugal, with nine-time World Champion S\u00e9bastien Loeb included in his place. Loeb is contracted to run six events for Hyundai this season and took his first podium in the team\u2019s colours at the most recent event in Chile, while Mikkelsen placed only seventh. Mikkelsen is suffering […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":41213,"featured_media":58472,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1,2],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rallystar.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/58471"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rallystar.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rallystar.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rallystar.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/41213"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rallystar.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=58471"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.rallystar.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/58471\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":58473,"href":"https:\/\/www.rallystar.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/58471\/revisions\/58473"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rallystar.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/58472"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rallystar.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=58471"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rallystar.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=58471"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rallystar.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=58471"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}