Roope Korhonen survived a demanding Sunday to claim a maiden European Rally Championship victory on debut at ERC Staff House Rally Hungary.
The Finnish pair of Korhonen and co-driver Anssi Viinikka, driving an MRF-equipped Toyota GR Yaris Rally2, navigated through incredibly rough gravel stages, that tested crews and machines to their limits. The duo took the win by 30.1sec from Mads Østberg, piloting a Michelin-tyre shod Citroen C3 Rally2.
Miko Marczyk benefitted from a day of high drama to claim the final podium place, 31.4sec adrift, behind the wheel of his Škoda Fabia RS Rally2. Marczyk was only 1.3s away from snatching second from Østberg.
“[It] feels amazing I have to say. This last one [stage] was really rough. Thank you to my sponsors. Also one important thing; Happy Mothers’ day,” said Korhonen.
Korhonen produced an impressive drive throughout winning five of the 13 stages, but the run to victory wasn’t without drama. Korhonen ended Saturday 10.6sec behind leader Andrea Mabellini, before winning the trio of Sunday morning stages to reduce the gap to the Italian to a tantalising 1.9sec.
However, the wind was taken out of Korhonen’s charge when the Clerk or the Course handed the Finn a 10-second penalty for hitting a chicane in Stage 10 [Nagylőtér, 15.54km]. Although, Korhonen immediately bounced back, moving into the lead on the next test [Iszka] where the rally was turned on its head. Mabellini dropped 26.2sec after suffering tyre damage, handing Korhonen a 0.7sec lead despite the latter also knocking a tyre off the rim.
Unfortunately, the damage sustained to the suspension on Mabellini’s Škoda Fabia RS Rally2 in Stage 11 forced the Italian, who led the rally throughout Saturday, into retirement. It ended an impressive drive from Mabellini and a thrilling battle for victory. Mabellini enjoyed a stunning Saturday with the only blemish being a hard landing from a jump that caused co-driver Virginia Lenzi some back pain, that required treatment from the on-site physio.
Mabellini’s exit handed Korhonen a relatively healthy 37.0sec lead over Østberg to take into the Power Stage – a second pas through the rough and rutted Iszka test. Korhonen managed to avoid further drama to claim a memorable victory in what proved to be a rally of attrition.
Østberg had been locked in a fight for fourth with Marczyk for much of the rally, but that became third on Sunday morning when Simone Tempestini hit trouble. Tempestini, last year’s winner, led the rally after winning Friday night’s Super Special stage but dropped back to third through Saturday. The Romanian’s podium hopes were shattered after suffering tyre damage in Stage 10, before a broken steering arm forced him off the road and into retirement on Stage 11.
After stage eight Østberg and Marczyk couldn’t be split, sharing identical overall times, although it was the former that ultimately came out of the battle on top to take a first ERC podium since winning in Hungary in 2023.
“Very pleased to be honest. It’s been many tough rallies, I was on the edge of retiring last year,” said Østberg. “First rally this year was full of trouble. We had the pace to fight at the top. I have a lot of experience in these situations and try to stay relaxed. I was maybe a bit too careful here.”
Isak Reiersen came home in fourth [+2min41.5sec] despite being among those to suffer tyre damage on Sunday afternoon’s stages, driving a Hankook-shod Škoda Fabia RS Rally2. Gábor Német was the top Hungarian driver in fifth, ahead of Romania’s Norbert Maior.
Sasa Ollé finished seventh claiming the Master ERC Championship Class from Jos Verstappen by 26.2sec, whose hopes were derailed by an overshoot on Stage 10. Verstappen went on to finish the rally in eighth overall ahead of Hungary’s Norbert Herczig.
M-Sport-Ford’s Jon Armstrong rounded out the top 10 after recovering from a double wheel change in Saturday’s Stage 6 [Kislőtér 2]. Armstrong had been sitting third when the drama struck, that cost him six minutes.
Philip Allen claimed the Power Stage honours by 1.9sec from Armstrong. Marczyk, Østberg and Korhonen completed the top five.
Max McRae also endured a dramatic top class ERC debut that ultimately ended in retirement from 10th position due to a collapsed rear suspension on his Citroen C3 Rally2 after the penultimate stage. McRae had charged up to 10th having dropped to 63rd after picking up 3min10sec of penalties induced by damage caused to the rear of his car in Friday night’s super special stage.
Fan Favourite Miklós Csomós retired from the rally after four stages, having run out of replacement tyres. Csomós rejoined the rally on Saturday under Super Rally rules.
Igor Widłak claimed the ERC3 class from Márton Bertalan by 17.2sec after long time leader Tristan Charpentier dropped 13 minutes in stage 10, when his fire extinguisher went off towards the end of the test. ADAC Opel Rally Junior Team’s Calle Carlberg clinched the Junior ERC and ERC4 wins by a comfortable 4min35.7sec from Victor Hansen.
As of the Hungarians, Gábor Német, Gergely Németh pair finished best with their fifth position, and they won the national championship classification.
I would have signed twice, if someone had told me at the beginning of the race that I would finish in the TOP5 as the best Hungarian’ said Német. ‘Thus, I’m a bit frustrated because we wanted to go down the last stage, the Power Stage, calmly, and at the beginning of the stage a rock hit the right front wheel of the car so hard that I thought we had another puncture. It was showing the same signs. I was forced to slow down the pace and just hoped the tyre wouldn’t deflate. Fortunately, ‘only’ the rim was bent a little. We are very happy, and I am still searching for words! We fought a lot, it was a really tough race. For this result a lot of people had to have problems, the stages are so tough. If you take on a little bit too much, it can easily backfire. Yesterday we had no problems at all, but today we had a few punctures, we managed to get through both though. At the end we didn’t have much of an advantage left, but we kept fifth position.’
ERC Master category (50+ drivers) was won by the local favourite, Sasa Ollé and Rebeka Ollé, who beat an ex- F1 driver, Jos Verstappen, who was spectacularly fast despite this was his first ever gravel rally.
‘It’s an incredible feeling to finish first in the Master category in this international field! – said Ollé. ‘We drove fast but safe. Unfortunately, we had a lot of punctures as several rims blew, but we are very happy to finish the race. I feel that this gravel surface fits to us – I’ve won here in Veszprém before in the overall, and now the feeling has come back. Then we managed to win at Nagylőtér, so I told my daughter: we won’t be gentle, we’ll give it a good push – and it worked this time. I like the two shooting range stages the most, I think they are sensational. We only had one technical problem during the weekend: after a jump we fell on a rock, which cracked the starter – luckily, it happened after Várpalota.’
Norbert Herczig, who had a puncture on the first day and had to change the tyre on the stage, which put him more than four minutes behind, also finished in the top ten in the ERC standings, even though he broke the right front shock absorber of his car on the last stage.
‘Today at the Iszka stage we broke our right front shock absorber. From then on, we had to continue in a kind of emergency mode, even on the last stage. Nevertheless, here we are, we’ve scored points, and we’ve started this year’s points scoring’ said Herczig. ‘Now we’re missing two races, but we’re preparing for Rome. The two-year break was noticeable, and in some places, we were more cautious. We have built ourselves up step by step and I can say that we have completed the two days without any mistakes. If we hadn’t had the technical problems, we would have had a good chance of finishing in the top five – which would have been a great result in such a strong field.
STAFF HOUSE RALLY HUNGARY, ROUND 2 OF ERC, VESZPRÉM
Overall classification: 1. Roope Korhonen, Anssi Viinikka (Finnish, Toyota GR Yaris) 1:50:30.7, 2. Ostberg, Eriksen (Norwegian, Citroen C3) +30.1 sec, 3. Marczyk, Gospodarczyk (Polish, Skoda Fabia RS) +31.4 sec, …5. Gábor Német, Gergely Németh (Hungarian, Skoda Fabia RS) +5:17.6 min, …7. Sándor Ollé, Rebeka Ollé (Hungarian, Skoda Fabia Evo) +6:33.9 min, …9. Norbert Herczig, Ramón Ferencz (Proformance Service, Skoda Fabia RS) + 8:24.5 min.