Mikko Heikkilä claims maiden FIA European Championship victory on BAUHAUS Royal Rally of Scandinavia as main rivals falter on Sunday.
Mikko Heikkilä is an FIA European Rally Championship event winner at last after he came out on top of a dramatic fourth edition of BAUHAUS Royal Rally of Scandinavia.
Jaspar Vaher had led the Swedish gravel event following 11 action-packed stages, but a high-speed crash on stage 12 left his Toyota GR Yaris Rally2 badly damaged and the 19-year-old Estonian firmly out of the lead fight.
Vaher’s unfortunate delay – the Junior ERC graduate had belied his lack of experience by leading from the opening super special until he hit trouble – left Teemu Suninen in front of Heikkilä by 4.8sec with four stages remaining.
The three-time FIA World Rally Championship podium finisher increased that gap to 5.4sec after he went 0.6sec quicker than his Finnish compatriot on SS13, the first stage after midday service.
Despite picking up right-rear tyre damage nearing the finish of SS14, Heikkilä was able to respond with the fastest time and narrow Suninen’s advantage to 2.8sec with two stages left to run.
But Suninen appeared to have Heikkilä’s advances covered after he reached a timing split on SS15 faster than Heikkilä had managed, only for The Racing Factory driver to crash 1.8 kilometres from the finish of the penultimate stage, handing top spot to TGS Motorsport-run Heikkilä.
With Kristian Temonen co-driving, Heikkilä held on through the 7.91-kilometre Ölme Power Stage to give Finland its first ERC win since Roope Korhonen triumphed in Hungary last May.
“It’s pretty good to be honest,” said Heikkilä, who, like Suninen, was armed with a Pirelli-equipped Škoda Fabia RS Rally2. “We have been trying to get this for quite a long time. It’s been a long weekend, fighting, fighting to get the 10ths of a second and hard competing all the time. The result is this, actually this was the target, and we can be really happy now.”
For Heikkilä the victory, by a margin of 15.7sec, helped to banish the memories of his Power Stage heartbreak on the 2023 ERC season opener in Fafe when tyre damage denied him a seemingly certain maiden ERC win with the finish in sight. He was also leading in Hungary the following season before a broken wheel led to his early exit.
MRF-shod Mārtiņš Sesks edged Hankook-supplied home hero Isak Reiersen in the battle for what became second, which raged for much of the event.
Reiersen had got the better of the FIA World Rally Championship stage winner on Sunday’s opening stage but couldn’t keep the Latvian driver behind as the day progressed, heavy contact with a rock on SS12 not helping the Swedish driver’s efforts.
Reigning Junior ERC champion Calle Carlberg beat his GK Door Team Sweden team-mate Patrik Hallberg to fourth place by 3.6sec after Hallberg completed the Power Stage with a flat tyre, ultimately forcing him to retire due to the fact he had already used his spare tyre.
Simone Tempestini headed 2025 BAUHAUS Royal Rally of Scandinavia winner Eyvind Brynildsen in fifth place as Brynildsen blamed a mistake on Friday’s Qualifying Stage for his high and unfavourable road position on leg one. Brynildsen fought heroically, nevertheless, to come back from 22nd to sixth.
Michelin’s defending ERC champion Miko Marczyk was 20th after SSS1 but he battled his way to seventh place at the finish as Joosep Ralf Nõgene made up two places on the final two stages, demoting Fabrizio Zaldívar on the penultimate test before getting ahead of freestyle mountain bike star Brandon Semenuk on the Power Stage. Semenuk finished 9th with Zaldívar 10th.
