50 years of rallycross and the final
year of Lydden Hill in the FIA World Rallycross
Championship, with the presence of the first European rallycross
champion John Taylor and historic cars from all eras going even to
straight competition were the attractions of the weekend, but the
event was also the end of the victory drought to Petter Solberg
as the double World RX champion won with authority and some
good teamwork in the final.
The qualifying was another PSRX
Volkswagen demolition, with Petter Solberg leading Johan
Kristofferson, with Timmy Hansen and Mattias Ekström
coming right behind, keeping their positions as main threats to the
pair of Volkswagen Polo Gti RX.
The first of the main battles would
happen on semifinal 1 with Hansen and Solberg in the front row, and
both opted for different ways at the start as Hansen went to the
Joker right in the first lap, with Solberg going a lap later and
staying way ahead of the competition that did the same.
Timur Timerzyanov left the Joker lap to
the end of the race, and while staying in the standard line he turned
things really hard for Solberg by blocking his way. Thankfully the
Norwegian had a considerable gap to win easily over Andreas
Bakkerud and Timmy Hansen.
The other main duel was on semifinal 2
with Kristoffersson and Ekström, and they also took separate routes
at the start, and with most of the field doing an early Joker,
Kristoffersson just had to push like hell to keep his position.
Kristoffersson kept himself ahead of
Ekström after the Joker and the EKS owner was in high hopes of
pushing for a first place fight, but Sébastien Loeb left the
Joker side by side with Ekström, and in a hurry to defend the second
spot, the Swede went wide and left the door totally open for Loeb to
overtake him and get the place, all while Kristoffersson won the race
with ease and in a clean fashion.
Things could get pretty unpredictable
with Ekström starting from the back in the final, but the PSRX
Volkswagen duo played the tactics right with most of the field going
into standard route with leader Petter Solberg. The team play was
ready to work when Solberg went to the Joker on Lap 2, as one would
be the cover for the other.
All drivers had their Joker laps
completed with Bakkerud going in the final lap, and without any
threats to the PSRX Volkswagen 1-2, Solberg just got straight to
victory with Kristoffersson behind him and Bakkerud completing the
podium.
Things are still in place in the
drivers' standings, as Kristoffersson leads with 124 points against
120 of Ekström and Petter Solberg comes for the title battle in
third with 117 points. Between the teams, PSRX Volkswagen dominates
it with 241 points while Team Peugeot-Hansen and EKS
battle for second with 171 and 168 points respectively.
On June 9th to 11th
the World RX circle visits another location featured in DiRT Rally as
Hell hosts again the Norwegian round.
PHOTO:
Comments
Post a Comment
Do you have an opinion? Feel free to comment.