Johan Kristoffersson finally found his way back to the wins in the FIA World Rallycross Championship, as nothing was in the way of his elegant car control, not even the opposition, ending the Sunday and the Riga RX weekend being one of the only three drivers to win in the Audi S1 EKS RX.
In Q1, a clean run let Mattias Ekström lead it and tow Johan Kristoffersson to stay ahead of Timo Scheider, and in Q2, Kristoffersson brought Ekström and Timmy Hansen along, but it wasn’t enough to beat Niclas Grönholm, who crushed the times again on Q3 while the other competitors got busy between themselves and Ekström had no drive in his SEAT. The two wins compensated for the fifth place in Q1, so Grönholm scored the 16 points as the top qualifier, with an ideal scenario behind him as Kristoffersson was second, Ekström was third and Timmy Hansen was fourth.
Semifinal 1 had Grönholm shutting the door on Timmy Hansen, which let Timo Scheider go to second, with most of them keeping it a close combat while Kevin Abbring opted to go to Joker early to have clean air. Scheider’s Joker on Lap 5 let Timmy free to battle with Grönholm, and the exchange of blows in the final 2 laps benefited the Finn, while Timmy held onto second place after recovering it while the German lost a bit of pace.
On Semifinal 2, 2020 title contenders made the front row, and while Kristoffersson took first place away, Ekström played the tactics in his favor by blocking Szabó, which created chaos just behind the AllInkl.com Münnich Motorsport driver, so the lead pack was in fact two separate battles, Kristoffersson vs. Ekström and Kevin Hansen vs. Szabó. It’s common sense that leaving Kristoffersson and Ekström free means seeing the go away, and both outpaced Kevin Hansen while keeping their positions.
With Scheider’s SEAT not going anywhere with leaking fluids, Szabó stepped in to take his place, being a bad start for Ekström as he lost his tactical partner. In front of the Swede, Kristoffersson used of unusual boldness in his line to go round the outside and outsmart Grönholm, passing and blocking any chances of a switchback.
Most of the field did early Joker Laps, meaning that Kristoffersson’s matters were exclusively with Grönholm until Lap 5, where the GRX/SET driver decided to Joker to get clean air to push, but the undercut didn’t work for Grönholm, so Kristoffersson just had to hold his pace to the checkered, controlling the race in his usual fashion.
Timmy Hansen still has a comfortable lead with 130 points, but he is seeing his brother Kevin, with 113 points, close to fall into Kristoffersson’s clutches, as the EKS JC driver sits in third with 110 points, and even Grönholm and his 107 points may be a threat at the next round, the Spa RX on 10 October, which will have the return of Ollie O’Donovan and Knapick, as well Anton Marklund into Peter Hedström’s Hyundai i20 RX.
PHOTO: Red Bull Content Pool/DPPI/Paulo Maria
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