Day two of Rally Hungary 2025 delivered everything you’d expect from the first gravel round of the ERC season: speed, spins, punctures, and plenty of surprises.
The action kicked off with the Hegyesd stage on Saturday morning, which quickly shook up the leaderboard. Andrea Mabellini stormed into the lead with a time of 11:20.2, followed by Jon Armstrong in second (11:24.1) and Roope Korhonen in third (11:25.6). Overnight leader Simone Tempestini dropped down to fifth. The stage, unfortunately also saw the first crash of the day from Mark Tiits.
Next up was the Kislőter stage, where several drivers suffered punctures. Despite the rough terrain, Simone Tempestini managed to climb back to fourth place overall. Meanwhile, Roope Korhonen managed to overtake Jon Armstrong, moving up to second place and pushing Armstrong down to third.
The final stage of the morning loop, Várpalota, included the rally’s well-known watersplash. There were no major changes in positions, with Mabellini holding the lead at 31:40.5, Korhonen trailing by just four seconds, and Armstrong rounding out the top three. Sadly, local hero Miklós Csomós was forced to retire after suffering punctures on every stage and running out of spare tyres.
The afternoon brought more challenges. Jarosław Kołtun crashed in the first stage after lunch. Things got even worse for Armstrong, who suffered two punctures in a single stage (SS6), one after 10 km and another at 16.1 km, dropping him to 25th place overall. “To get two in the one stage is pretty unlucky,” he said. “It’s a big shame as everything was going quite well.”
Saturday ended with Mabellini still in the lead at 1:01:17.9, but Korhonen is just 10.6 seconds behind, keeping the fight for first place very much alive. Tempestini now sits in third, trailing by 30.8 seconds after inheriting the position from Armstrong’s misfortune.