Topi Heikkinen was satisfied with his performance at Nyirad in Hungary last weekend, despite missing out on the podium on Sunday and slipping down to third in the series points.
The Finn dominated round nine qualifying and was fastest in round 10 practice, but failed to convert either to a race victory, with a favourable draw aiding Timmy Hansen’s push for victory on Saturday, and a cracked exhaust manifold hampering Heikkinen’s progress on Sunday where he slipped to fourth on-track behind the Hansen brothers and Jerome Grosset-Janin.
„In general, if you look at the whole picture, the weekend started really well,“ Heikkinen said. „I immediately had good laptimes and also Saturday was a strong day, I managed to be P2 and I had some good chances to even win but on Sunday I was lacking with the pace. I felt pretty okay but I couldn’t match the laptimes of the other guys.“
Going into the double-points season finale at Estering Heikkinen remains firmly in title contention, but he admits that team tactics from the Hansen brothers may make his life difficult at the German track.
„We have seen this year that they have been fighting sometimes against eachother but sometimes they have been staying away from eachother,“ he said. „Of course it helps a bit when you have your brother next to you, that you know what they do in turn one for example.“
„I should probably bring my brother next time,“ Heikkien joked. „I have have a twin sister who does horse riding so she can probably come and join.“
Regardless of what transpires between Heikkinen and the Hansens, he feels that the double points format will be the biggest deciding factor, but right now he isn’t focusing too much on what might be,
„The double points will make the difference and if you manage to be on the podium twice and be higher than the Hansen brothers then that will be the way to take the trophy but it’s still two weeks away, I’ll try to think about it later but right now the focus is on this race.“
