Jaspar Vaher had led the Swedish gravel event following 11 action-packed stages, but a high-speed crash on stage 12 left his Toyota GR Yaris Rally2 badly damaged and the 19-year-old Estonian firmly out of the lead fight.

Vaher’s unfortunate delay – the Junior ERC graduate had belied his lack of experience by leading from the opening super special until he hit trouble – left Teemu Suninen in front of fellow Finn Mikko Heikkilä by 4.8s with four stages remaining.

The three-time FIA World Rally Championship podium finisher increased that gap to 5.4sec after he went 0.6sec quicker than Heikkilä on SS13, the first stage after the midday service halt in out-of-town Karlstad.

Despite picking up right-rear tyre damage nearing the finish of SS14, Heikkilä was able to respond with the fastest time and narrow Suninen’s advantage to 2.8sec with two stages left to run.

But Suninen appeared to have Heikkilä’s advances covered after he reached a timing split on SS15 faster than Heikkilä had managed only for The Racing Factory driver to crash 1.8 kilometres from the finish of the penultimate stage, handing top spot to TGS Motorsport-run Heikkilä.

With Kristian Temonen co-driving, Heikkilä held on through the 7.91-kilometre Ölme Power Stage to give Finland its first ERC win since Roope Korhonen triumphed in Hungary last May.

“It’s pretty good to be honest,” said Heikkilä, who, like Suninen, was armed with a Pirelli-equipped Škoda Fabia RS Rally2. “We have been trying to get this for quite a long time. It’s been a long weekend, fighting, fighting to get the 10ths of a second and hard competing all the time. The result is this, actually this was the target, and we can be really happy now. Big, big thanks to many people.”

For Heikkilä the victory, by a margin of 15.7sec, helped to banish the memories of his Power Stage heartbreak on the 2023 ERC season opener in Fafe when tyre damage denied him a seemingly certain maiden ERC win with the finish in sight. He was also leading in Hungary the following season before a broken wheel led to his early exit.

MRF-shod Mārtiņš Sesks edged Hankook-supplied home hero Isak Reiersen in the battle for what became second, which raged for much of the event.

Reiersen had got the better of the FIA World Rally Championship stage winner on Sunday’s opening stage but couldn’t keep the Latvian driver behind as the day progressed, heavy contact with a rock on SS12 not helping the Swedish driver’s efforts.

Reigning Junior ERC champion Calle Carlberg beat his GK Door Team Sweden team-mate Patrik Hallberg to fourth place by 3.6sec after Hallberg completed the Power Stage with a flat tyre, which ultimately caused him to retire before the finish.

Although Hallberg suffered late disappointment, he equalled Mads Østberg’s record jump of 47 metres over the iconic Colin’s Crest on Saturday afternoon. Event sponsor BAUHAUS rewarded the former Junior ERC driver with a mini digger.

Simone Tempestini headed 2025 BAUHAUS Royal Rally of Scandinavia winner Eyvind Brynildsen in fifth place as Brynildsen blamed a mistake on Friday’s Qualifying Stage for his high and unfavourable road position on leg one, which the Norwegian reckoned ruined his chances of challenging for a repeat victory. Brynildsen fought heroically, nevertheless, to come back from 22nd to sixth.

Michelin’s defending ERC champion Miko Marczyk was 20th after SSS1 but he battled his way to seventh place at the finish as Joosep Ralf Nõgene made up three places on the final two stages, demoting Fabrizio Zaldívar on the penultimate test before getting ahead of freestyle mountain bike star Brandon Semenuk on the Power Stage to finish eighth. Semenuk took ninth with Zaldívar 10th.

Tuukka Kauppinen finished 11th, Tristan Charpentier 12th, Pierre Ragues 13th for his first ERC points, as FIA ERC3 winner Ville Vatanen and runner-up Craig Rahill rounded out the top 15.

Philip Allen was on course to finish 15th but went off the road on the penultimate stage. After crashing out on Saturday, Benjamin Korhola won the Power Stage, his first ERC stage win.

Jakub Matulka, the 2025 Polish title winner, was in 14th place when he rolled into retirement on SS14. Takumi Matsushita crashed out from 15th on the previous stage, while British champion William Creighton was a non-starter on SS14 due to a mechanical issue. Hungarian champion Gábor Német crashed out on SS10.

Andrea Mabellini didn’t restart on day two after he retired on SS3 with damage to his Lancia Ypsilon Rally2 HF Integrale’s rear suspension. Frank Tore Larsen was in sixth place when alternator failure stopped him in his tracks on SS11.

Meanwhile, Vaher, who had been leading by 9.7sec when he crashed, continued following extensive repairs at midday service and went sixth quickest on the Power Stage.

He said of his earlier anguish: “It was almost a flat corner over the crest. The rear started sliding, I was full throttle, but I couldn’t save it, it was into the woods and spun around. It’s tough, we did quite a perfect performance up until that point. All the team were doing such a great job to get us there, but I just ruined the whole thing, it was clearly my mistake.”

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Rally di Roma Capitale is up next on the 2026 FIA ERC schedule from 3 - 5 July. The Italian round is the first of four consecutive asphalt events.