Oliver Solberg won his home European race, the Scandinavian-Swedish Rally, ahead of Hayden Paddon and Martins Siskes, who extended their lead in the points race. Mads Ostberg sets an amazing record with his Colin’s Crest teaser.
The Scandinavian-Swedish Rally, which was organized for the first time, brought great battles and some serious accidents, which probably immediately established themselves in the ERC calendar for a long time.
Oliver Solberg and Hayden Paddon were essentially battling it out for the win all the way, and although the New Zealand rider had better starts on Friday and Saturday, the afternoon belonged to the Swedish rider on both days, so in the end Solberg was up to it. to win with a 22.5 second advantage over Paddon.
On Saturday afternoon, Paddon tried to hold on to his second position, except for the Power Stage, because he hit the gas more there and eventually won the stage.
There were three contenders for third place up until Saturday afternoon, but Mikko Heikela had a puncture in his second Saturday afternoon sprint, so in the end the bronze medal was decided between Martins Siskes and Nikolai Griazin.
There were several dramatic scenes on Saturday as European champion Efren Larina hit something on the outside of a right-hand turn in the second stage of the day, damaging the Skoda’s suspension and forcing it to stop. Simone Campedelli was left in the same spot and Heckela also got a flat tyre, ending up 12th instead of 3rd.
Frank Tore Larsen also showed off the biggest touchdown of the competition in the second session on Saturday.
The fourth stage of the day was on a course that included Colin Crist’s jump, Mads Ostberg beat Eyvind Brynildsen’s 44-meter jump by two meters in the morning, then in the Power Stage he was able to spend an extra meter in the air, so the new record in the end was 47 metres.
After László Martin and Dávid Berendi started with a very difficult spring setup on Friday, they later found the right setup and were able to accelerate continuously, and even though they did several laps on Saturday they finished 14th in the ERC rating, so I managed to score points again .
After five races, Hayden Paddon increased his lead over Martins Sisex to 34 points, while Mads Ostberg, despite his eighth place, maintained third place in the championship, increasing his deficit to 62 points. Evren Larina is already 92 points behind in fifth place, so he has only a mathematical chance of defending the title.
The European Championship will now continue with the next Asphalt Races in Rome at the end of July.
