WRC: Mikkelsen joins Skoda for Monte Carlo

The third member of VW's defunct World Rally Championship team has secured another drive – but only for the first round. Andrea Mikkelsen, winner of this year's season finale in Australia, has signed a one-off deal for Rallye Monte-Carlo that will put the 27-year-old Norwegian and co-driver Anders Jaeger (pictured at left with Mikkelsen) in Skoda's three-car WRC2 team along with Pontus Tidemand/Jonas Andersson and Jan Kopecky/Pavel Dresler.

"It feels a bit like coming home," Mikkelsen reflected. "It was Skoda that gave me a chance in the beginning and together we got to celebrate two champion titles in the IRC championship, which gave me the opportunity to drive for Volkswagen Motorsport. Now that the situation is like it is, I think it will be fun to compete for Skoda again. We have many good memories."

While VW teammates Jari-Matti Latvala and Sebastien Ogier have secured seats at M-Sport and Toyota, resepectively, Mikkelsen hasn't been able to put together a top-level deal. He acknowledged he will have to accept a part-time role next season while working on a full-time return in 2018.

"The consequence of Volkswagen withdrawing from the championship is that all the WRC seats were already taken. Therefore, my 2017 season will be all about keeping my rally-overall warm and finding a seat in the right team to be able to fight for the WRC champion title in 2018," he said.

"We don't know what the upcoming season will bring yet. But of course I hope to get to drive as much as possible and we are working on a plan to do selected rallies."

Mikkelsen's manager, Erik Veiby, acknowledged that Volkswagen's late decision had forced a complete re-think.

"To be here without a seat for Andreas is a little surreal. We are talking about the driver who beat the world champion at the last event in Australia and who has been third in the championship for three years in a row," Veiby said.

"Looking at 2016, only Sebastien Ogier, Kris Meeke and Andreas won two or more WRC rounds. Our goal was for Andreas to take the world champion title in 2017. We still believe that he will be world champion, but now we have to postpone those plans until 2018."