Heikkilä is competing this season with the Italian Step Five Motorsport team, driving a Toyota GR Yaris Rally2 car. He has already participated in two events of the Italian Gravel Championship earlier this year with the team.
Heikkilä switched from Skoda to Toyota’s new Rally2 car for this season. He has already become acquainted with the new Toyota in four rallies, having competed in the Arctic Lapland Rally and the Rally Sweden before starting the gravel season in Italy.
The ERC starts with an entirely new round. Previously, Hungary hosted tarmac rallies, but this year’s competition will be on gravel roads.
Heikkilä is excited about the start of the ERC season.
“It’s something we’ve been looking forward to, after all, the ERC is our main series this year,” Heikkilä says.
According to Heikkilä, the rally around the city of Veszprém will be challenging.
“It’s going to be an interesting rally. Based on pictures and videos, at times, it’s close to Safari Rally stages, and on the other hand, there are also fast and bumpy roads to drive on the plains. There are no ditches either, which allows for bold cutting,” Heikkilä describes.
Compared to last season, not only the car and the team have changed for Heikkilä, but also his co-driver, with Kristian Temonen reading the pace notes. Temonen won the Arctic Lapland Rally for the first time in his career this February. Although last weekend in Italy Heikkilä got used to driving from English notes, returning to Finnish notes is welcome.
“The cooperation with Kristian works flawlessly, and we’ve got off to a really nice start. Last weekend, it was fun to drive with the Italian Francesco Pezzolin from English notes, but it’s nice to return to Kristian’s Finnish notes. Finnish notes are somewhat easier to understand than English ones,” Heikkilä says.
Rally Hungary starts on Friday evening with a short super special stage. Over the weekend, a total of 13 special stages will be run, totaling 192 kilometers.
