Another FIA World Rallycross Championship event, another win for Johan Kristoffersson, with the Swede and his VW Polo GTi RX being unstoppable on clear air at Lohéac, and all attempts to hold him came to nothing in the final due to his outstanding speed.
Johan Kristoffersson had easily the best car in his VW Polo GTi RX, dominating the qualifying table by winning three of the four heats, while the other stories of the qualifying were the remarkable pace of Liam Doran in his World RX return with GCK, matching the pace of the EKS Audis and appearing in sixth in the table, while Sébastien Loeb had to march a lot to just qualify to the semifinals, ending in 12th as he was recovering the lost ground due to a power steering problem in Q2.
Semifinal 1 had Mattias Ekström jumping to first swiftly after the start and racing to hold Johan Kristoffersson, who was of course on full pressure mode. Despite multiple attempts of an overtake, Kristoffersson not only was stuck in second, but also had Timmy Hansen at his back wing. With no more risks being taken, Ekström won the race with Kristoffersson and Hansen right behind him. This proved that being fast wasn’t enough for Kristoffersson if he wasn’t given any room to mash the throttle.
The semifinal 2 was another good one to watch, and Andreas Bakkerud was holding the leading and the brawling pack as at least four cars were trading paint behind him, though Petter Solberg and Sébastien Loeb were able to keep their places while Liam Doran opted for an early joker lap. What Solberg wasn’t expecting was how good was Loeb’s pace as the French jumped to second in the fourth lap.
What was seen from then on was a desperate race for the finish, and despite a mistake, Loeb was able to keep second place and Solberg behind him in third, while Bakkerud came comfortably for the win.
The factory squads monopolized the final, and the EKS Audis got the upper hand as Bakkerud was leading Ekström and both were holding Kristoffersson, who accidentally did the joker lap with Solberg and both got stuck behind the Peugeots. EKS sent neither of the cars to the joker lap but Kristoffersson was pushing Hansen to them with his pace, and the late joker strategy took its toll as Kristoffersson passed all cars once the entered the joker and added another win to the account, with Bakkerud in second and Solberg completing the podium.
Kristoffersson now has 224 points against 165 from Bakkerud and 160 from Solberg, while PSRX VW leads the teams with 384 points against 322 from EKS Audi Sport and 309 from Peugeot. Next event is the World RX of Latvia at Bikernieki on September 15th.
PHOTO: PSRX VW
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