Rally Hungaria: Roope Korhonen winner of a difficult Hungarian rally

This morning, there were still 82,26 km to go. A group of three special stages to be taken twice made up the day's menu. While the terrain did not appear to present any particular difficulty, it nevertheless proved formidable, particularly for the tires. ERC, there is no single manufacturer and none of the 4 manufacturers involved (Michelin, Pirelli, Hankook and MRF) was spared from punctures. On the roads, the presence of very many stones transformed the race into a lottery. Both fast...and lucky, Roope Korhonen (Toyota Yaris) sailed by Anssi Viinikka managed to win.

Second at the end of the first stage, the Finn was 10 seconds behind leader Andrea Mabellini (Skoda Fabia) when he set off this morning. The Yaris driver put pressure on his rival by closing the gap to 6 seconds after two stages. A 5-second penalty for a chicane issue on stage 1 saw him fall back to 2 seconds with three more stages to go.

Early in the afternoon, Korhonen and Mabellini both suffered punctures (SS11), but it was the Nordic driver who escaped with the least damage. He took the lead by 0 seconds ahead of the Italian. For championship purposes, the latter was willing to settle for this result, but a broken suspension during his puncture forced him to retire. Without a rival, Roope Korhonen was therefore able to cruise to the finish to claim his first ERC victory.

The battle for the podium was also undecided between Mads Ostberg, Mikolaj Marczyk and Simone Tempestini. At the start of the stage, these three riders were grouped within 12''. After 2 SS, there were only 8 left and in the final sector of the morning loop, Tempestini punctured and fell to 5th.^e rank while the Norwegian took advantage of a 10'' penalty for the Pole (chicane cut) to take the lead in the race to 3^e place. Marczyk didn't give up. In a very degraded SS11, he came back to 1''3 behind Ostberg. In the penultimate section, it was Mads' turn to attack to create a 4''8 margin, but this time for 2nd place after Mabellini's withdrawal. Then the Power Stage remained to be contested. In this one, Marczyk gave everything, but he only managed to close 3''5 on Ostberg who won the silver medal by 1''3. These two drivers had not been on the podium since 2023. In the championship, Marczyk takes the lead with 45 points, ahead of Ostberg 38.

The next round will offer a very different terrain as it will take place in Sweden from May 29 to 31.

Final ranking of Rally of Hungary 2025