Argentina 2016 was the last time Andreas Bakkerud celebrated an FIA World Rallycross Championship win, still in the Hoonigan Ford Focus RS RX, with the need to win in between this drought hurting his performance at times, specially considering the number of near misses since that time. But now this past, as he scored his first win with the Audi S1 EKS RX in the Canada RX at Trois-Rivières, though it was with Monster Energy RX Cartel, with the energy drink brand curiously being his backer in the last triumph.
The qualifying was highlighted by the domination of the GRX TANECO Hyundais, with Niclas Grönholm topping the table, though along with that a lack of pace and luck from the Team Hansen MJP cars leveled the field, and add to this the chaotic final race in Q4 that simply wiped out half of the field and Timmy Hansen’s chances to advance to the Semifinals as he ended in 13th.
Semifinal 1 had a good start from Timerzyanov and Janis Baumanis, stealing positions from Grönholm on the go and leaving the Finn in third place. Kevin Hansen was leading the early Joker pack and this helped him to go third in front of Grönholm, though Timerzyanov and Baumanis still had to Joker.
Timerzyanov just held the established lead and won the race with authority while Baumanis came home second after holding a third placed Kevin Hansen, fortunate with his Joker strategy.
In Semifinal 2, Guerlain Chicherit tried to steal the attentions but just split leader Andreas Bakkerud from third placed Liam Doran. A mistake from Chicherit caught Doran along, making things difficult to the British Bomb.
Doran was the only one without the Joker done and was in the middle of the pack, so his disadvantage was clear, and thanks to Chicherit being in front of him again, Monster Energy RX Cartel only had Bakkerud advanced to the Final with the win, while Chicherit was second and Anton Marklund came home third with a patient and clean race.
In the Final, Bakkerud had a commanding start with Baumanis following him while Kevin Hansen had the Joker done early, though with a dubious move into Marklund right after that. While Hansen spun and was left behind and Timerzyanov jumped to third, Bakkerud and Baumanis kept it clean in their positions, with the Norwegian winning the Final and the Latvian conquering an impressive second place.
Along with the subpar showing in the Final, Kevin Hansen also faced disqualification due to his push that drove Anton Marklund to the wall.
In the post race interview, an emotional Bakkerud explained: “It has been some challenging months before the season starts, and I feel we were so close at Silverstone, at Belgium, in Sweden, and now everything worked. In the start I burned the clutch and my subframe in the rear came loose and was hitting the dirt, so my car was everywhere, but we managed to stick it together, so huge thanks to the RX Cartel and all the guys involved.”
Kevin Hansen keeps the lead with 143 points, but Bakkerud becomes the second placed driver with 138, while Timmy Hansen is relegated to third with his 129 points and Grönholm and Baumanis come in fourth and fifth as the main outsiders in the battle, meaning that the Team Hansen MJP has real threats to their title quest now.
Team Hansen MJP also holds the teams lead with 274 points, but sees GRX TANECO and Monster Energy RX Cartel approaching from second and third, with 255 points and 228 points, respectively.
Back to Europe, the championship will continue with the biggest event of the season, as the Lohéac RX draws not only huge numbers in terms of spectators but also some unexpected wildcards, and although no entry list was released, the August 31st event may have some national and Euro RX contenders joining in.
PHOTOS - FIA World Rallycross Championship
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