Johan Kristoffersson keep adding victories and other records to his resume, and at the Bikernieki citcuit in Latvia it wasn’t different, as he dominated the qualifiers, the semifinal and final and conquered the Latvia RX, getting even closer of his second FIA World Rallycross Championship title.
On semifinal 1 Kristoffersson and Mattias Ekström went the Turn 1 side by side but the PSRX VW driver had the advantage on Turn 2, jumping to the lead afterwards. The worse was left to Petter Solberg, who spun on Turn 1 and was left trying to get back to the race.
Ekström tried to get over Kristoffersson by tactics but this simply wasn’t enough as Kristoffersson finished first and Ekström was second. Guerlain Chicherit was holding pressure in third with the two GRX Taneco Hyundais behind him, but a bunch of mistakes cost the position and Niclas Grönholm advanced to the final.
On semifinal 2 Andreas Bakkerud tried to force his way between Timmy Hansen and Sébastien Loeb and all three cars lost control, though Loeb salvaged the lead while Liam Doran jumped to second and Kevin Hansen went to third. Joker Lap tactics will come in place as well team work for Peugeot, and while Loeb was disappearing in front, the Hansens were defending territory, and this contributed heavily to a Peugeot 1-2-3.
The final had Kristoffersson as dominant as always, jumping into first from Turn 1, being just followed by Ekström, and while that, Niclas Grönholm was holding the three Peugeots to keep his third place and was succeeding in it. Grönholm lost position to Loeb but kept pressing the Frenchman, but the extra pace to attack him wasn’t there.
In the front pack, Kristoffersson remained unchallenged, so the victory was just question of time, which he duly delivered, while Ekström’s Audi finished in second.
Kristoffersson now has 254 points against Ekström’s 181 points, while PSRX VW leads the teams standings with 458 points against EKS’ 359 points. Next meeting will be back to the other side of the Atlantic, as the debut World RX of USA will be held on September 29th at the Circuit of the Americas.
PHOTO: FIA World Rallycross Championship
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