Topi Heikkinen holds on for third win of the season in Austria

Topi Heikkinen became the first three-time winner in TitansRX with a narrow victory over title rival Kevin Hansen in round seven of the 2019 season at the MJP Arena in Austria.

The Finn led from the start but faced a stiff challenge from Kevin Hansen, who made several attempts to get by for the race lead.

Hansen made a play for the race lead in the final couple of corners on the last lap of the seven lap race, making contact with Heikkinen more than once. He was unable to find a way past though, and finished just seven hundredths of a second back in what was the closest final finish in TitansRX so far.

World Rally Championship regular Hayden Paddon was a distant third, nearly 12.7 seconds behind the leading pair.

The New Zealander, racing for the first time since the second round of the season in Essay, moved into the final podium position on the second lap of the race after making contact with Craig Breen, who dropped back as a result and finished 11.6 seconds behind his fellow rally driver.

Timmy Hansen was the last runner in the final finishing fifth. The Swede made a poor getaway at the start of the race and then was forced off track on the second lap of the race. He continued to battle with Breen for the remainder of the race, despite suffering with a left-front puncture as a result of the second lap incident.

Jerome Grosset-Janin was the remaining starter in the final, but pulled off track almost immediately at the start of the race.

At the semi-final stage, Tamara Molinaro narrowly missed out, along with Oliver Webb, and Andrew Jordan were eliminated in the first race.

In the second semi-final, a first corner collision on the opening lap took Reini Sampl and ‚CsuCsu‘ out of contention. The incident led to a red flag. Following the restart, in which on the remaining four cars took to the track, Ronny C’Rock finished a lap down with a mechanical issue which ended his final hopes.

TitansRX round seven final results