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The race to finish runner-up in the FIA European Rally Championship and the battle for the FIA Junior ERC title will take centre stage on this week’s season-deciding Rally 6 Cities North of Portugal.
With one event remaining, Andrea Mabellini and Miko Marczyk are eight points apart in their respective pursuits of second place in the final standings behind Teemu Suninen, who secured the coveted ERC title on JDS Machinery Rali Ceredigion last month.
And Jon Armstrong, last year’s ERC runner-up who has recently completed his first season in the FIA World Rally Championship’s top tier upon graduating, believes both drivers will be doing all they can to replicate his achievement as they enter the gravel-based Rally 6 Cities North of Portugal, which takes place from 23 – 25 October.
Having placed fourth in 2024 and third in 2025, Pirelli-equipped Mabellini holds the initiative, especially as he has no scores to drop. As well as trailing Mabellini in the standings, Michelin-supplied Marczyk, last year’s champion, faces the prospect of discounting his lowest score, which is currently seven points.
“It’s something that’s really good to have on your CV, something nice to highlight to your sponsors and partners that you finished runner-up in the European championship,” Armstrong said. “In terms of who those stages would suit better, Andrea is getting used to the car still on all these different surfaces, so it’s a different scenario compared to last year for him. I also know whenever it counts, Miko can really pull it out of the bag.
“It will be interesting to follow and there’s a big entry list, so it will be a matter of staying in the mix with each other and trying to get the best result without maybe needing to get a win for that second place.”
Lancia Corse HF driver Mabellini was a non-finisher on the previous gravel round of the ERC, May’s BAUHAUS Royal Rally of Scandinavia. The Italian, 27, is hoping for better luck in Portugal. “The weather can be crazy at the end of October but it is like it is, we will catch what is waiting for us,” he said. “We will enjoy the event and do some big slides on the gravel.”
Marczyk used the break between JDS Machinery Rali Ceredigion and the ERC finale by doing something rather unusual: he set a new Guinness World Record for the longest electric car trip on a single charge, a new standard of 1338 kilometres. The ORLEN Team driver previously set a Guinness World Record for the longest journey on a single tank of fuel, a distance of 2831 kilometres, in 2025.
As well as the battle to finish second in the overall standings, the FIA ERC4 and FIA Junior titles are between Hankook-shod ADAC Opel Rally Junior Team drivers Timo Schulz and Tom Heindrichs, the younger brother of Hyundai WRC star Thierry Neuville.
A near-capacity 31 Rally2-powered drivers will contest Rally 6 Cities North of Portugal – including Nikolay Gryazin, Roope Korhonen, Kris Meeke, Léo Rossel, Mārtiņš Sesks and Jan Solans – which is based in Fafe and starts and finishes in Guimarães. Click HERE for the full story and click HERE for more on Portugal’s return to the ERC after a two-year break.
The FIA European Rally Championship for Teams will also be decided on Rally 6 Cities North of Portugal with Team MRF Tyres in the ascendency, while Kalum Graffin and Petr Kačírek will battle to finish runner-up in FIA ERC3.
Rally 6 Cities North of Portugal: the key numbers
Stages: 17
Competitive distance: 181.10 kilometres
Total distance: 733.73 kilometres
