After four special stages, Heikkilä tops the leaderboard. Although he didn’t clinch the fastest times in the Saturday morning stages, he consistently ranked among the quickest drivers.
Heikkilä holds a slender lead of 0.4 seconds over the Latvian driver Martins Sesks in the overall standings.
“I took it cautiously on this stage; the grip was much better than I expected. We’re having a good battle with Martins,” Heikkilä reported at the end of the SS4.
Both Heikkilä and Sesks are driving the new Toyota Rally2 cars.
“We’re still learning the car. There are still some things to adjust and learn,” said Sesks.
The competition at the top is tight, with Skoda driver Simone Tempestini just three seconds off the lead. Last year’s championship winner Hayden Paddon is currently fourth, trailing by 7.3 seconds.
Among the leading drivers in the championship, Efren Llarena had to retire in the morning when his car’s radiator broke. Meanwhile, Mathieu Franceschi rolled his car twice on the same stage but managed to continue; he dropped from first to ninth because of the incident.
Three more special stages will take place on Saturday afternoon following the service break. The rally concludes on Sunday.
Rally Hungary, standings after SS4/13:
| Position | Driver | Car | Time |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1. | Mikko Heikkilä | Toyota | 31:01.7 |
| 2. | Martins Sesks | Toyota | +0.4 |
| 3. | Simone Tempestini | Skoda | +3.0 |
| 4. | Hayden Paddon | Hyundai | +7.3 |
| 5. | Mikolaj Marczyk | Skoda | +11.1 |
| 6. | Miklos Csomos | Skoda | +15.4 |
| 7. | Erik Cais | Skoda | +32.4 |
| 8. | Andrea Mabellini | Skoda | +39.8 |
| 9. | Mathieu Franceschi | Skoda | +44.5 |
| 10. | Jon Armstrong | Ford | +48.2 |
