Race after race, Iivari Mannisto continues to stamp his authority on the RallyX North CrossCar Junior championship. Securing his fourth victory in five events since the start of the season, the young Finn once again underlined his status as the benchmark of the category on Saturday in Älvsbyn.

Behind him, Alex Antilla delivered a timely response. After enduring a run of three consecutive races without a podium finish, the Finn finally returned to the top three by claiming third place in the opening race of the weekend in northern Sweden.

Second in the intermediate standings after qualifying, thanks in part to a fastest time in Q2, Antilla remained one of the leading protagonists throughout the day before eventually finishing behind fellow Finns Iivari Mannisto and Peetu Matalamaki.

“I’m very satisfied with today. My start in the final wasn’t ideal and I found myself on the outside through the opening corners, which dropped me down the order. Fortunately, our joker strategy worked perfectly. After that, I was able to maintain a strong pace and fight my way back onto the podium,” explained Alex Antilla.

Antilla also adapted well to the constantly evolving conditions. With a soaked circuit in the morning gradually drying throughout the day, drivers were forced to adjust their approach at every stage of the competition.

“The conditions were particularly difficult to manage. The track was extremely wet and slippery this morning before gradually drying out as the day went on. Personally, wet conditions don’t necessarily suit me best, but we managed to be competitive both in the wet and in the dry. Achieving this result in such changing conditions is very satisfying.”

Thanks to his return to the podium, Antilla consolidates third place in the championship standings. While he now trails Iivari Mannisto by 37 points, he sits just a single point behind Peetu Matalamaki in the battle for second place.

Nevertheless, the Finn refuses to base his ambitions on potential mistakes from his rivals. In his view, the priority remains improving his own level of performance.

“I think we’re still in the championship fight. We scored valuable points today and that allows us to stay in contention.”

“To reduce the gap to Iivari Mannisto, we simply need to be faster than him. We have to keep improving and try to beat him on pace. Of course, if he makes a major mistake, that could also help us gain more points, but first and foremost we need to focus on our own performance.”

Heading into the second day of competition, Antilla’s ambitions are clear. Encouraged by the pace shown by his team on Saturday, he now hopes to build on this renewed momentum and move even closer to the front-runners.

“I hope we’ll have a dry track on Sunday. I think we have the potential to make another strong final and fight for a very good result. At this stage of the season, a victory would obviously be the ideal outcome. We have good pace and now we need to turn that into results.”