The ERC salutes hero Hänninen

The FIA European Rally Championship is saluting its reigning champion Juho Hänninen tonight after the Finn claimed his maiden stage victory in the World Rally Championship earlier today.

Hänninen was fastest of all through Rallye Monte-Carlo’s 25.45-kilometre second St Bonnet stage in his Ford Fiesta RS WRC and a full 13.4s quicker than nine-time world champion Sébastien Loeb, who is leading the event for Citroën.

“I’m very happy with this time,” said the former ERC ace, who is in seventh position overall after 10 stages. “I want to be able to harness the potential on the other surfaces too but this will take more time and experience in the car. But it’s easier to do good stage times if you are not out of the road.”

Hänninen dominated last year’s ERC with four victories and a winning margin of 100 points in a ŠKODA Motorsport Fabia Super 2000. He looks back on his stint in the ERC with great fondness.

“Of course winning every championship is important and gives you a good feeling but, for me, winning the European championship was particularly important because that was my main target from ŠKODA for 2012 and it had been a long time since a driver from Finland (Pauli Toivonen in 1968) had won the title,” he said.