Mikko Heikkilä is running fourth overall in the ERC Tet Rally Liepaja after the first competitive day. Gap to leader is 38,4 seconds and third place within 6,1 seconds. Heikkilä’s aim is on the podium for Sunday.
Mikko Heikkilä, 30, along with his co-driver Samu Vaaleri, 24, are running fourth in the ERC Tet Rally Liepaja held in Latvia after the first competitive day. Gap to leader is 38,4 seconds. The opening day consisted of 85,94 special stage kilometres and six special stages. Heikkilä tackled the fast Latvian stages from seventh on the road following the starting place choices set by Friday’s qualifying stage.
Tet Rally Liepaja started with the morning loop’s three special stages. Heikkilä’s drove the ninth fastest time on the first stage of his career-second ERC rally. Followed by eightand sixth for the remainder of morning loop’s stages respectively, Heikkilä was running sixth overall by the time of noon service.
-The guys in front have been mixing the surface of the road a bit and there’s a lot to be cleaned. It’s tough, but everything has been working fine so far and we’re in an OK position. We’ll push for the second leg.
Saturday continued with the afternoon leg in which the morning’s stages were driven again. On the leg-opening SS4 Heikkilä was 13th fastest due to suspected puncture. 7th fastest time on SS5 and third fastest time on day-ending SS6 despite a half-spin made sure that the Finn tackles tomorrow’s stages from sixth position. Gap to leader is 38,4 seconds and fifth position is within a striking distance of 6,1 seconds.
-Our position is decent despite our starting position, but there are yet things to improve. We hit a rock on SS4 and I was afraid we suffered a puncture. We eased off for a while before making sure the tire was OK. The last stage was great despite suffering a half-spin after around 10km. Yet we had a third fastest time on a vastly competitive field and we were on a similar pace with the fastest time on splits.
Heikkilä heads to Sunday with a strong aim of fighting for podium.
-We’ll push strongly tomorrow to climb into podium. Our starting position improves from today and we’ll try to make the most of it.
Tet Rally Liepaja continues on Sunday 3rd of July.
Tet Rally Liepaja Overall standings after SS6/12:
| 1. | Martins Sesks | 43:50,8 | Skoda Fabia Rally2 Evo | LAT | |
| 2. | Efren Llarena | 44:13,7 | +22,9 | Skoda Fabia Rally2 Evo | ESP |
| 3. | Tom Kristoffersson | 44:23,1 | +32,3 | Hyundai i20 N Rally2 | SWE |
| 4. | Mikko Heikkilä | 44:29,2 | +38,4 | Skoda Fabia Rally2 Evo | FIN |
| 5. | Ken Torn | 44:36,4 | +45,6 | Ford Fiesta Rally2 | EST |
Words: Juho Koski / Mikko Heikkilä Racing communications