It wouldn’t be a rallycross event without some degree of drama, and Johan Kristoffersson had one of the most dramatic wins of his career this Saturday (14) at opening of the RallyX Nordic season, thanks to misfortune hitting Anton Marklund really hard.
The qualifying didn’t reflect the whole power picture, but Niclas Grönholm being the fastest on Q1 and Q2 showed how the SET Promotion driver was at the top end of the game, with Sondre Evjen in second as the best of the surprises and Ole Christian Veiby in third as he is recovering the skill after a few years away from rallycross.
Too many skilled guys in the grid makes for a lot of traffic, and Mattias Ekström’s pace was specially hindered because of who is ahead of him, meaning he ended the three heats as the sixth best, and if you want to know about the champion Johan Kristoffersson, the fourth place was mostly result of a suspension break on Q2, as his second place in Q1 and Q3 thrashing, being 3 seconds ahead of the second fastest car, showed where he and his Volkswagen Polo RX are at.
Shout-outs should also go Thomas Bryntesson in seventh and Yury Belevskiy in ninth, who showed the speed to be in front, although lacking just the extra edge of the frontrunners.
Semifinal 1 had Johan Kristoffersson starting well and shutting the door on Grönholm’s face while Bryntesson came with an early Joker along with Linus Östlund, but not even this was able to threaten the top two, with Kristoffersson leading Grönholm as they were class of the field, not even actively fighting for the lead to not slow down the pace.
In the second one, Sondre Evjen carried his early momentum and outpaced Anton Marklund at the start, and despite the presence of Philip Gehrman between them, it was a cat and mouse game between leader Evjen and runner-up Marklund, with position staying as they were in the first corner.
The third Semifinal finally offered Ekström some clean air, and he went with hunger to the first place while poleman Belevskiy went backwards to third, dropping massively behind Ole Christian Veiby. The Audis in front were basically securing position, with Ekström pushing a little bit harder, so Belevskiy wasn’t able to dethrone neither Ekström not Veiby.
The Final had chaos before and after Turn 1, with Evjen and Kristoffersson going physical and Ekström losing the line and finding the armco on Turn 2. Once the dust settled in, Marklund was approaching second place Evjen while Kristoffersson was in his lone run in the lead, and Marklund’s charge was enough to pass Evjen and chase Kristoffersson.
Once Kristoffersson did his Joker, he was into Marklund’s strike zone, so well timed cornering did the trick, even though Kristoffersson started some rough pressure into his Hyundai i20 RX with half a lap to go. When everything looked set for Marklund’s win, a bad landing in the final jump destroyed the front left suspension, offering the win to Kristoffersson and leaving Marklund crawling to second place while Evjen completed the podium.
RallyX Nordic - Höljes I results
PHOTO: Kristoffersson Motorsport
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