Two Yaris lead at the start in Hungary / ERC

The start of the 2024 European Championships took place on Friday. After the heat and qualifying, the teams completed the first short special stage of 2.05 kilometers on Friday evening. The event, now based in Veszprém, west of Budapest, continued on Saturday with six gravel stages (= 101 km).

After Erik Cais (CZ) set the fastest time in a Skoda Fabia RS in Saturday’s first decider and a short lead one step later from Mathieu Franceschi (F/Skoda Fabia RS), there was a battle between Martin Sesks (LT) and Mikko. Heikkilä (FIN), all in the new Toyota Yaris Rally2. Finn took command in SS 3 and was able to keep it by two decisions before the Latvian proved that he already knew how to use the Yaris. The man, who won two ERC events last year, appeared to be twice as fast as his rival and managed to build a slim lead of 3.8 seconds over his rival. However, this lead was not enough to cover the last part of the day. This gave Heikkilä the opportunity to retake the lead and win by 2.3 seconds over the unlucky Sesks.

Usually very clever, this time Simone Tempestini gave an excellent performance. The Romanian multi-champion certainly found it fast in the Skoda Fabia RS Rally2. After his best time in SS 3, he took the third step of the temporary podium on Saturday evening.

Defending New Zealand ERC champion Hayden Paddon, who didn’t want to push the tires on his Hyundai i20 Rally2 to the limit, finished fourth, 12.0 seconds behind Mikolaj Marczyk (+ 21.7) in the Skoda Fabia RS.

Mathieu Franceschi, who was the leader after his best time in SS 2, then got injured and crashed twice. The Frenchman is now seventh and has a chance to make up for it on Sunday. Three-time Austrian champion and current ÖRM leader Simon Wagner was in twelfth place (+ 52.9) in the Skoda Fabia RS.

It was a shootout that decided the ERC Junior level. Estonia’s Jaspar Vaher (Ford Fiesta Rally4), who was the leader in five special stages, lost 2:54 minutes on SS6 due to a puncture. Briton Max McRae regularly took the lead in the Peugeot 208 Rally4 with a 35.2 second lead over Sweden’s Calle Carlberg (Opel Corsa Rally4). German Timo Schulz from the ADAC Opel Junior team retired from the third stage in the Opel Corsa 4 due to a radiator failure (P15 in the junior classification).