Mikko Heikkilä has finished second in the WRC2 category at the Tet Rally Latvia. The equal career-best category finish came after a rally-long battle at the top.
Mikko Heikkilä and co-driver Kristian Temonen have finished second in the Tet Rally Liepaja. Heikkilä finished on the second step of the WRC podium in Secto Rally Finland in 2021 in the privateer-only WRC3 category. This time Heikkilä was outright second fastest Rally2 driver on the gravel roads of Latvia, and the Step Five Motorsport driver was in contention for the podium the whole event holding the second place firmly in his grasp since Friday morning.
Heikkilä started the rally with ninth fastest time on the opening stage held at the Bikernieki circuit on Thursday. The rally moved to the gravel roads around Liepaja on Friday, and the Toyota-driver quickly elevated himself up to second.
-were slight issues with tire pressures as they rose a bit too much towards the end of the stage, but it’s nothing too big. We’re kept factory drivers behind us and whilst Oliver (Solberg) is ahead, we’ll keep the pressure on, Heikkilä recapped his Friday.
On Saturday Heikkilä continued to show his pace winning two of the day’s nine stages.
-We’ve been fighting for every tenth of a second. We lost a bit of time in the morning, I think I was too careful about something that wasn’t there, but the second half of the day was good, and we gained the lost time back. I’m happy with the day and succeeding on the city stage was the cherry on top, Heikkilä recapped.
On Sunday Heikkilä set out to finish his career-equal best within a WRC category. From the final day’s four stages Heikkilä won one, and secured P2 with a margin of 7,4 seconds after a rally-long battle with fellow Finn Sami Pajari.
-It was a really good and quite trouble-free weekend, and we met our goals quite well. For sure, there are some small things to improve on our driving that we will find from in-car videos with the power of hindsight, but it was a great trip. We had a very tight fight for tenths of seconds the whole weekend, big congratulations to Oliver and Sami, Heikkilä said at the finish line.
Heikkilä wishes to extend his gratitude over the successful weekend to those who made it possible. Next on the schedule is Heikkilä’s home event, Secto Rally Finland.
-A massive thanks to all our cooperation partners who made this trip possible. A big thanks goes to the team and Felix for great work throughout the weekend. We’ll aim to improve upon the weekend in Finland, Heikkilä promised.
Mikko Heikkilä’s competitive season continues with Secto Rally Finland in 1st to 4th of August.
Tet Rally Latvia results in WRC2:
1. Oliver Solberg 2:40:25,5 Skoda Fabia RS Rally2 SWE
2. Mikko Heikkilä +37,4 Toyota GR Yaris Rally2 FIN
3. Sami Pajari +44,2 Toyota GR Yaris Rally2 FIN
4. Fabrizio Zaldivar +3:01,8 Skoda Fabia RS Rally2 PRY
5. William Creighton +4:27,7 Ford Fiesta Rally2 IRL
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