Johan Kristoffersson not only won his second event straight in the 2018 FIA World Rallycross season at Montalegre, he honored his Swedish origin by doing a stellar performance in snowy conditions during a final that had some former WRC specialists with snow rallying skill to fight with.
Sébastien Loeb won in Q1 and held the top until Q3, but then a stellar performance of Andreas Bakkerud brought the Norwegian driver to first place, with Loeb in second and Mattias Ekström in third in qualifying, while the PSRXVW cars appeared in fifth and sixth. The track was in changing conditions overnight as rain and snow presented themselves to Montalegre, and the track only started to dry on Sunday afternoon.
In semifinal 1 the EKS cars raised a wall in front of the grid but Johan Kristoffersson found a way past in the first corner. Mattias Ekström and Andreas Bakkerud were playing catch up with Kristoffersson but it wasn’t working so EKS split strategies for both cars, but Ekström wasn’t counting with Guerlain Chicherit snatching and holding the third position. Kristoffersson and Bakkerud crossed the finish without threats while Ekström wasn’t able to pass Chicherit and saw the GCK driver go to the final.
Petter Solberg surprisingly stalled his Volkswagen Polo RX in the Semifinal 2 start, which led to a Peugeot 1-2 with Sébastien Loeb and Timmy Hansen, but Solberg was able to recover the lost ground thanks to contact between Janis Baumanis and Kevin Eriksson, jumping to third halfway in the race.
From that point snow started to pour hard so the scenario had the drivers struggling for stability, in special Loeb who got past by Timmy and lost the lead. After that the Peugeots held their way in awful track conditions and held the 1-2 with Solberg coming third.
The weather just got worse as time passed so the final was in snowy conditions and Johan Kristoffersson was leading the standard lap group while Sébastien Loeb got out of the Joker first. Kristoffersson didn’t mind the snow, pushed hard and opened the gap.
Loeb was struggling for pace and this was enough for Kristoffersson to get advantage enough to win with authority after completing the Joker, driving on snow like it was on dry conditions.
Kristoffersson keeps his lead with 53 points while Bakkerud jumps to second with 44 and Solberg gets down to third with 43. Loeb appears in fourth with 39 points while Ekström and Hansen are tied in fifth with 36. In the teams standings there are no changes as PSRXVW leads with 96 points against 80 of EKS and 75 of Peugeot.
Next round will be the Mettet RX in Belgium, where ComtoYou Racing will field an ex-EKS Audi S1 RX for François Duval in his usual visit to his home track.
PHOTO: FIA World Rallycross
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