16 years old Belgian Viktor Vranckx made some jaws drop at the RallyX Nordic by taking on the Supercar field on an OMSE RX2e car and be competitive, and did it again by convincingly winning the first FIA RX2e Championship even with the same RX2e car he used in the Nordic season, at the same Höljes venue he visited some weeks before the international season.
Viktor Vranckx lived up to his preparation in RallyX Nordic and topped the table on Heats 1 and 3, consequently topping the Qualifying with a charging Patrick O’Donovan in second and Isak Sjökvist in third.
The first Progression race was a show from Vranckx with Sjökvist having a close watch, but with all bases covered during the whole five laps, the Belgian had this on his hand, while Pablo Suárez led the best of the rest. The second race had Patrick O’Donovan in the same situation with Nils Andersson on the chase, but a wide line in the Joker cut the pursuit short for Andersson, which meant he had to watch O’Donovan win comfortably while he got second place and Raul Ferre was third.
Semifinal 1 had Vranckx getting the lead from Turn 1 while hold Andersson while Catie Munnings was trying her best from third place to keep pace and avoid Filip Thorén and Mark Flaherty. While Vranckx and Andersson kept their positions intact, Munnings got too slow on the Joker and left the door open for Thorén. The top-3 kept unchanged to the finish as the threats behind would have no power to fight back.
The second Semi almost had Laia Sanz jumping to the lead but contact sent her to the runoff, leaving O’Donovan in the lead while Sjökvist was leading a high paced chasing group. O’Donovan indeed took the win on track, but without doing the Joker lap, he had 30 seconds added to his time, which promoted Sjökvist to first, and the battling Paul Ferre and Pablo Suárez to second and third, with Suárez being the best third and ultimately making it to the Final.
Despite the absence of O’Donovan, you couldn’t ask for a stronger grid for the Final, and a combination of track position and a good launch did the trick for Vranckx to get first place and avoid the attention of Sjökvist. Andersson was close and aware of the lead battle and got second place once Sjökvist did the Joker, but the moment of clean air wasn’t enough for the Swede to beat the Belgian, as Vranckx just had to hold his place to win the race.
The FIA RX2e Championship resumes its 2022 season on the Nürburgring on 30-31 July.
PHOTO: Red Bull Content Pool
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