Rain fell on Sunday at Hockenheim
for the third round of the FIA World Rallycross Championship,
but the factor that normally shuffles things in rallycross didn't
stop Mattias Ekström from taking another win this season as
he had his Audi S1 Quattro RX in control all the time.
Qualifying was all over for Team
Peugeot-Hansen as Sébastien Loeb dominated it with Timmy
Hansen coming in second, with both drivers winning Q1, Q2 and Q4.
After them, Johan Kristoffersson had Mattias Ekström and
Petter Solberg behind him, with the World RX double champion
recovering from pretty bad rund in Q1 and Q2.
Cloudy weather was indicating some
signs of rain, with a bit of a drizzle falling before semifinal 1,
but it would be troublesome specially in the main straight. The race
started with Loeb and Kristoffersson shutting the door for everyone
and then Kevin Hansen loses the front end, almost sends Loeb
off track but still catches Kevin Eriksson as he spins,
Eriksson gets beached for a while and Reinis Nitiss also spins.
The battle for the lead kept until Lap
3 when Loeb opted to brake to deep into the corner and had a brief
off, which opened the way for PSRX Volkswagen domination as
Kristoffersson won it and Petter Solberg came in second. Loeb still
had good gap to Eriksson so he finished third and qualified to the
final.
Semifinal 2 had also the wet track
factor into account and Toomas Heikkinen got a good start but
was too wide at Turn 1, and the mess helped Timmy Hansen to secure
the lead. Behind Hansen and Ekström, Ken Block, Timo Scheider, Timur
Timerzyanov and Toomas Heikkinen were fighting for third when
Timerzyanov spun, Block crashed into the tire barriers and locked
Scheider's way, which put Heikkinen in third then.
With Hansen still to Joker, Ekström
just had to wait behind him and then take the lead, but on Lap 5
Hansen locked up his tires like Loeb and lost the lead earlier, so
Ekström just had free way to win it, with Hansen in second and
Heikkinen in third.
It was hard to bet in any of the six
candidates in the final, and add it the wet track to make it more
random, but Ekström took the lead and Heikkinen tried to cover him
but faced the block from Solberg and Loeb while Kristoffersson and
Hansen chased the EKS owner. His lap times were quicker than
Kristoffersson, and as the Volkswagen Polo Gti RX struggled
for grip, the Audi S1 just had to be driven until Ekström's third
victory out of three events this season.
Ekström now holds
a solid lead in the standings with 85 points against 69 of
Kristoffersson and 62 of Solberg. Chasing the current champion hasits
merit for PSRX Volkswagen, leader between the teams with 131 points
against 114 of EKS while Team Peugeot-Hansen is the outsider in third
with 95 points. The next event is the World RX of Belgium next week
at the Circuit Jules Tacheny, Mettet, on May 12th.
PHOTO: EKS
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