The determined Finn stands on the edge of his 4th consecutive title in the discipline and with the Italian Honda- HM-Zanardo team and can deliver yet more accolades – in one of the most demanding forms of motorcycle racing – in three weeks when the season closes in France.

Ahola went 1-3 on the two days run in the series’ inaugural visit to Turkey and the conditions saw rider and machine performance pushed to the max for the second weekend in succession as stony ground, dusty landscapes and temperatures pushing forty degrees created a demanding Grand Prix.

The 35 year old was peerless on Saturday to claim his ninth victory from the thirteen days held up until that point. He defeated arch-rival and sole serious threat to a potential crown, KTM’s Ivan Cervantes, by over four seconds. The Spaniard would have his revenge on Sunday as a run of small mistakes by Ahola left him frantically trying to reduce a time deficit in the scratch standings. Ahola and Cervantes have been divided by fractions of a second this season in what has been a gripping duel but Ahola was unable to shut down a gap of what became 23 seconds by the end of the 90km laps of MX, extreme and enduro specials. He finished third and at least maintained his 100% podium record.

“Mika won by four seconds on Saturday, another small amount and it just shows the high level of these two champions,” summarised Team Manager Franco Mayr. “They were first and second in the scratch and the fastest of the category. Saturday was very good and Sunday started well with Mika fastest in the first special and then looking good in the second until he had a bad crash and lost a lot of time. He then wanted to push hard to catch back up and made another mistake and would again slip down later on. It was a shame but everything is OK and he has no injuries, the bike was not damaged so it was not too costly to the overall result. Mika still has to finish off the podium this year and now we have just one round left where we can seize this title.”

Team-mate in E2 Oscar Balletti enjoyed his best meeting of the season by taking 5th on Saturday and 4th on Sunday, running just four seconds behind Ahola. The Italian is 6th in the standings and will need to find 21 points to breach the top five. In E1 on the CRF250R Fabio Mossini completed his first full event of a troublesome and injury-riddled term. The Italian took 8th and 7th and posting his first points on the board last week in Greece. “Balletti had a good race and was close to Mika on the second day,” evaluated Mayr. “He has been getting better towards the end of the season and now people can see he is fast and competitive. Mossini was seventh and it is a shame he lost some races at this level because it meant that he has struggled to get up to the speed of the top guys in E1.”

The eighth and final round of the championship will take place in three weeks, on September 26th at Noiretable in France.