Johan Kristoffersson proved why he’s leading the FIA World Rallycross Championship with a commanding victory at Trois-Rivières, coming from behind after a poor Saturday that saw the Swedish driver being placed as low as ninth halfway in the qualifying.
Sébastien Loeb was the one took the best out of PSRX VW poor form, leading in Q1 and Q2, but a contact with Mattias Ekström in Q3 and excellent races for Johan Kristoffersson in Q3 and Q4 propelled the Swede back to the top spot he’s used to see for most of the season. The qualifying was marked by some rough racing between the top contenders, in special the evident rivalry between EKS and PSRX VW.
On semifinal 1 the PSRX VW wall was broken by Mattias Ekström as he jumped to second and entered into pursuit mode to catch Johan Kristoffersson. Petter did an early Joker only to get stuck behind Niclas Grönholm, while Kristoffersson held Ekström during the whole race, winning it with the EKS boss right behind and Solberg scoring the third place in the final lap.
Andreas Bakkerud had a heroic start on semifinal 2, breaking through the Peugeot trio and grabbing the lead, but everything went to ruin when the left rear corner of the suspension broke, leaving the Norwegian with a crabbing Audi S1 EKS RX, and although he resisted bravely, Bakkerud didn’t go past fourth.
The race was totally for Sébastien Loeb but not only he lost the lead to Timmy Hansen in the final lap, but the WRC legend also lost the rear in the penultimate corner, slamming the barriers and blocking the track. Janis Baumanis was about to overtake Loeb, but had to wait him to get rid of the barriers to finally claim second place, while Loeb stayed in third.
The goal in the final was to beat Kristoffersson, but despite some initial pressure the lead stayed with the Swede. Timmy Hansen then dedicated himself to reduce the gap to Kristoffersson, but he lacked the laps to attack Kristoffersson, who won the Final with a margin of 0.6 seconds to Hansen, while Loeb came from last to get the third place.
Kristoffersson extends his lead by having 195 points against 140 from Loeb and Timmy Hansen and 139 from Bakkerud and Solberg. Like in the drivers’ standings, PSRX VW leads the teams’ standings by having 334 points against 280 from Peugeot and EKS’ 273 points.
The World RX will go for another month break as action will back to Europe, more precisely at Lohéac, in France, on September 1st.
PHOTO: FIA World Rallycross Championship
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