The Hell RX win passed in the hands of many drivers on track, but unfortunately this also happened out of it, with some penalties handing the win to Niclas Grönholm as the Finnish driver was returning to the FIA World Rallycross Championship.
Grönholm was coming back as the GRX TANECO driver missed two rounds to cure himself from appendicitis, while Kevin Abbring and Rokas Baciuska were debuting for ESMotorsport and GCK respectively.
As much as Timmy and Kevin Hansen were fast in their Team Hansen MJP Peugeots, Grönholm was on fire, with Timur Timerzyanov as a close follower overnight, while Timmy Hansen took second place after the Q4. Abbring’s performance also deserves praise, as the Dutchman was seventh after the qualifiers.
Monster Energy RX Cartel had contrasting performances from their drivers. While Andreas Bakkerud was fourth, Liam Doran had dismal performances, and while the British Bomb was expected to watch the semifinals from trackside, he was promoted to 12th place as Rokas Baciuska was excluded.
Timo Scheider flopped it, started early and took a penalty. When they started for real, the chaos was so big that Guerlain Chicherit spun and Scheider retired with damage. Grönholm and Abbring were leading by not going to the Joker, and when he did, he was slotted behind Timerzyanov, though both drivers started to clash for second, where Abbring took advantage of the Hyundai i20 RX’s lack of traction in the last corner, which was also the trigger for Janis Baumanis to pass Timerzyanov.
In the end Grönholm ran isolated to the win, while Abbring and Baumanis took Timerzyanov out of the final finishing second and third.
Semifinal 2 saw most of the best starters go to the Joker, which left Kevin Hansen in the lead. The problem for the non-Jokers is that the pack with Joker done was close and approaching, led by Liam Doran.
Kevin Hansen and Andreas Bakkerud decided to Joker in the last lap, and while Liam Doran and Anton Marklund held the first and second places until the checkered, Kevin Hansen gave no room to his older brother and took third place and the spot in the final, as this would have big consequences in the championship.
Six different cars from six different teams were in the final, and while in the fight for grip, Kevin Abbring led the non-Joker pack while Doran was leading again the Joker pack by going as early as possible.
Doran was pushing and getting closer to the guys in front, so even though Abbring was running free, this wouldn’t mean the lead would be handed to him. Abbring lost traction and Doran lost pace due to damage, so Anton Marklund was leading in the final, and with a well established gap, the GCK driver secured the win, with Kevin Hansen and Niclas Grönholm completing the podium after leaving the Joker.
After the race though, it was discovered that the front bumper mounting thickness was bigger than the regulations specified, which disqualified Marklund from the final. Along with that, Kevin Hansen was punished with 1 second added to his total time for excessive pushing, as the stewards deemed it was similar to the push that gave him the win at Abu Dhabi RX.
In the end, Niclas Grönholm inherited the win, Kevin Hansen still kept his second place and Janis Baumanis completed the podium.
Despite missing the semifinals, Timmy Hansen is still leading with 107 points while Kevin Hansen is with 106, while Andreas Bakkerud is their immediate threat in third with 92 points. Grönholm comes in fifth with Timur Timerzyanov with 78 points.
Between the teams, Team Hansen MJP leads with 213 points while GRX TANECO comes in second with 195.
Next month the Scandinavian tour comes to an end with the Höljes RX in Sweden on July 6th.
PHOTO - FIA World Rallycross Championship
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