By combining speed with patience, Finnish driver Mikko Heikkilä claimed his maiden victory in the FIA European Rally Championship at the Rally of Scandinavia. Crews driving Škoda cars locked out the entire podium at the Nordic event, with seven of them finishing in the top ten.
The Swedish round of the ERC delivered dramatic action throughout the weekend. Crews at the front of the overall classification gave each other no quarter at all, which ultimately lead to mistakes from the leading drivers. Partly thanks to the pressure he applied on his rivals with his relentless pursuit, Mikko Heikkilä celebrated his first-ever ERC victory together with co-driver Kristian Temonen.
The Finnish duo, competing in a Škoda Fabia RS Rally2 entered by TGS Motorsport, had been among the frontrunners from the second special stage onwards. On Saturday, Heikkilä briefly battled compatriot Suninen, also driving a Fabia RS Rally2, for second place, although Suninen eventually ended the day as the faster of the two. Both Finnish drivers remained in close contact with young Estonian Jaspar Vaher, who held the rally lead.
Sunday’s action therefore followed a clear pattern: Heikkilä was pushing Suninen, while Suninen was chasing Vaher. After special stage 11, meaning two-thirds into the rally, Suninen trailed the lead by less than 10 seconds, with Heikkilä a further 4.5 seconds behind. Nothing had been decided at that point, something the final five stages clearly demonstrated. First, Vaher crashed out of the lead at special stage 12, while the gap between Suninen and Heikkilä changed only marginally.
On the fourteenth special stage, Heikkilä pushed hard and cut his rival’s lead at the front to just 2.8 seconds. And he did so despite suffering a puncture that plagued him toward the end of the stage. With only two stages remaining, the fight for victory remained completely open. However, at the finish of the following stage, Suninen crashed less than two kilometres before the finish and his hopes of victory came to an end. Heikkilä thus took the lead and could breathe a sigh of relief. At the finish of the penultimate stage, he held a lead of over 23 seconds over the Latvian duo of Mārtiņš Sesks and Renārs Francis in second place, allowing him to drive the final special stage with confidence.
Heikkilä handled the situation with ease and reached the finish with an advantage of 15.7 seconds. Exactly the same margin separated Sesks in second from Isak Reiersen in third place. The home driver and co-driver Stefan Gustafsson also competed in a Škoda Fabia RS Rally2, thereby completing a full podium lockout for cars from Škoda Motorsport team.
“I was trying to get this for a long time,“ he said. “Finally, my race engineer can see me happy. He told me to look happier, and I told him that I would be when I won,” commented Heikkilä after securing his maiden ERC triumph. He had already come close to victory on two previous occasions in the championship’s history, but this time he finally succeeded.
Other crews driving Škoda cars also demonstrated their speed in Sweden. Romanian driver Simone Tempestini took fifth place, while reigning European champion Miko Marczyk finished seventh, this time partnered with co-driver Daniel Dymurski. Canadian driver Brandon Semenuk secured ninth place in Sweden, while Fabrizio Zaldivar snatched tenth place at the last minute.
After a gravel weekend in Scandinavia, three Škoda drivers are now at the top of the overall standings. José Antonio Suárez and Mikko Heikkilä are tied for first place, while Mārtiņš Sesks is in third. In the coming rounds, the ERC championship will return to asphalt. In early July, the crews will compete in Rome, and at the end of the month in Poland.
