Juho Hanninen, Skoda, Ireland 2012Juho Hanninen is continuing to fend off a resurgent Andreas Mikkelsen as the Circuit of Ireland builds to a thrilling conclusion over its final loop.

Although Mikkelsen fell nine seconds adrift of fellow Skoda driver Hanninen when he made a mistake on the last stage of Saturday morning's loop, after service the Norwegian retaliated immediately - winning the Redrock stage by 4.8s to immediately halve the gap, despite a wild moment near the end of the stage.

Hanninen managed to pull away by half a second on Drumhillery, but another stage win by Mikkelsen on Hollow brought the Finn's lead down to just 2.3s with four stages - two of them a street superspecial - to go on Saturday afternoon.

Jan Kopecky (Skoda) and Mathieu Arzeno (Sainteloc Peugeot) remain on course for third and fourth, while Sainteloc's Craig Breen is edging closer to CA1 Skoda driver Robert Barrable in the battle for fifth and top local honours.

Leading positions after SS11:

Pos  Driver             Team/Car             Time/Gap
 1.  Juho Hanninen      Skoda              1h37m20.2s
 2.  Andreas Mikkelsen  Skoda UK               + 2.3s
 3.  Jan Kopecky        Skoda               + 1m27.8s
 4.  Mathieu Arzeno     Sainteloc Peugeot   + 3m39.1s
 5.  Craig Breen        Sainteloc Peugeot   + 4m40.0s
 6.  Robert Barrable    CA1 Skoda           + 4m43.8s
 7.  Sepp Wiegand       Skoda Deutschland   + 5m29.0s
 8.  Garry Jennings     Mitsubishi          + 7m15.8s
 9.  Josh Moffett       Mitsubishi         + 10m25.6s
10.  Marty McCormack    Sainteloc Citroen  + 10m27.3s