Heikkilä third at the midway point of ERC Sweden

Mikko Heikkilä is running third in the second round of the ERC, The Royal Rally of Scandinavia. The Finn overcame the pause in driving after WRC Sweden in February, and is in the contention for podium in Sweden.

Finnish rally driver Mikko Heikkilä and co-driver Kristian Temonen are third in the second round of the European Rally Championship, the ERC Royal Rally of Scandinavia, after two competitive days. The Skoda-driver is 14,3 seconds behind the leader after eight special stages. The rally concludes on Sunday with eight stages still to go.

Heikkilä opened the rally well on Friday with a second fastest time on Qualifying Stage. Heikkilä solidified his third position during Saturday, maintaining a close gap with the leaders.

- The day was quite okay overall, but I’m not fully satisfied. My best pace has been in the same tenths of seconds as the leaders, but for some reason SS3 and SS4 didn’t go too well. I lost seven seconds on SS3 and five seconds on SS4. Without those mishaps the pace has been there, and after the afternoon loop of stages the gap was essentially identical as before them, Heikkilä recapped.

ERC Sweden is Heikkilä’s first summer event of the season, meaning a considerable gap between Heikkilä’s last event, coincidentally also in Sweden, in February.

- Driving more often would be helpful for sure. The pause between competitive driving is weighing down on us a bit, and getting to the pace required here is never easy.

Sunday’s final day consists of almost 100 special stage kilometers on the roads around Karlstadt, familiar in the past as the arena for WRC Sweden. Heikkilä’s strategy for attacking the fast gravel roads of Sweden is clear.

-The goal is to climb up the timing board and focus on consistently fast driving. With such a high level of competition, winning a stage by over ten seconds is difficult, so our aim is to chip the gap bit by bit, Heikkilä said.

ERC Royal Rally of Scandinavia concludes on Sunday 24th of May. The rally is shown live via Rally.tv streaming service.

ERC Royal Rally of Scandinavia standings SS8/16:

1. Jaspar Vaher 44:18.5 EST Toyota GR Yaris Rally2

2. Teemu Suninen +8.8 FIN Skoda Fabia RS Rally2

3. Mikko Heikkilä +14.3 FIN Skoda Fabia RS Rally2

4. Martins Sesks +17.5 LAT Skoda Fabia RS Rally2

5. Isak Reiersen +20.2 SWE Skoda Fabia RS Rally2