Finnish rally driver Mikko Heikkilä is fifth in the WRC Sweden after two competitive days. Driving the TGS Motorsport-prepared Toyota GR Yaris Rally2 in the WRC2 category, Heikkilä’s gap to the front is 58,3 second. The Finn aims to gain more pace for Saturday’s seven stages.
Mikko Heikkilä and co-driver Kristian Temonen, driving the TGS Motorsport-prepared Toyota GR Yaris Rally2, are running fifth in WRC2 category in WRC Sweden. Heikkilä opened the rally cautiously by scoring a seventh fastest time at the short opening sprint on Thursday. With Friday consisting of seven special stages with a service between them, Heikkilä set out to the forests of Umeå to gain more ground on the timing sheets.
-The day was divisive for us, and I cannot be entirely happy of today. We had some issues with the setup in the morning, and once we got the sorted, the day’s third stage SS4 was good, Heikkilä said.
After the service break Friday continued with a leg of four stages. Heikkilä’s pace improved throughout the day, and the Toyota driver drove two top 3 times during the afternoon narrowing the gap to his closest rivals.
-The first stage of the afternoon was OK. On the second stage SS6 I tried to drive cleanly in the grooves, and that costed us some time. On the final proper forest stage Floda 2 heavy snowfall reflected light back to us making driving more difficult, but the performance was good there. The day-ending Umeå Sprint 2 we lost time in the slippery braking zones, and we gave some time away there, Heikkilä stated.
With the event continuing for two more days and the longest day of the rally ahead of the pair, Heikkilä sets out to regain some lost time on Saturday. The Finn’s gap to podium is only 13,2 seconds.
-Our goal is to gain more pace for tomorrow and narrow the gap to our closest rivals.
WRC Sweden continues Saturday 17th of February with seven special stages and 125,96 special stage kilometres. The rally is shown live in Rally.tv streaming service and Rally TV application.
WRC2 standings SS8/18:
1. Oliver Solberg SWE 59:39,5 Skoda Fabia RS Rally2
2. Georg Linnamäe EST +29,4 Toyota GR Yaris Rally2
3. Sami Pajari FIN +45,1 Toyota GR Yaris Rally2
4. Roope Korhonen FIN +47,9 Toyota GR Yaris Rally2
5. Mikko Heikkilä FIN +58,3 Toyota GR Yaris Rally2
WRC Sweden Itinerary
Saturday 17.2. – 125,96 km
07:45 SS9 – Vännäs 1 15,80 km
08:35 SS10 – Sarsjöliden 1 14,23 km
10:08 SS11 – Bygdsiljum 1 28,30 km
14:15 SS12 – Vännäs 2 15,80 km
15:05 SS13 – Sarsjöliden 2 14,23 km
16:38 SS14 – Bygdsiljum 2 28,30 km
19:05 SS15 – Umeå 1 10,08 km
Sunday 18.2. – 61,08 km
07:27 SS16 – Västervik 1 25,50 km
10:03 SS17 – Västervik 2 25,50 km
12:15 SS18 – Umeå 2 Power Stage 10,08 km
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