The 23-year-old Flying Finn, a member of the Marklund Motorsport supported by Volkswagen team, was aiming to build on his strong start to the inaugural World RX season when the series resumed in Norway for round three.
Despite progressing to the semi-final stage in his Volkswagen Polo RX Supercar, Heikkinen’s bid for a place in the six-lap final came unstuck when he was sent spinning on the opening lap of his semi following contact with Andreas Bakkerud.
Topi Heikkinen, who was third in the points after day one, said: ”We found the speed in practice and I was second in heat one. I was looking good for a similar result in heat two but I got stuck behind Nitiss and driving in his dust cloud affected my speed and I was only fifth fastest. But we were third in the points after day one and had our sights set on more championship points.”
He continued: ”In the third heat I thought it was a jump start and waited for a new start but there wasn’t one so I lost a lot time. I lost some time behind Jacques Villeneuve in the fourth heat but after passing him I set good lap times and scored the second fastest overall time, which left me in fourth position with everything possible.
”I had a good starting position in second semi-final. I took my ’joker’ lap immediately and it was a fierce battle with Bakkerud. I managed to pass him at the hairpin but then he hit me in the back causing me to spin. The front of my car hit the barrier and that ruined my hopes of the final. I’m really, really disappointed. We had the speed to race for the podium, maybe even the win. Now, that win will have to wait until the next race on my home soil in Kouvola.”
Having tackled the X Games in Texas and World RX in Norway over successive weekends, Heikkinen will take a well-earned rest before the World Rallycross Championship resumes on at the Kouvola track in southeast Finland from June 28/29. The venue is approximately 140 kilometres from the capital Helsinki and regularly attracts huge numbers of fans.
Provisional World RX drivers’ standings (after round three of 12):
1 Reinis Nitiss 72 points
2 Petter Solberg 69
3 Toomas ’Topi’ Heikkinen 59
4 Andreas Bakkerud 57
5 Timur Timerzyanov 41
6 Anton Marklund 39
