Filip Martinsson didn’t have exactly pace to spare in his Renault Clio RX for the second event of the RallyX North weekend at Älvsbyn, but he won the battles he needed to win to complete the sweep in Swedish soil.
The qualifying heats were held in a wet and muddy track, which kind of controlled the impetus of the drivers that were more aggressive on Saturday, with only the loose surface offering opportunities to push hard, but not at all points of the track. There was no consistency, and top qualifier Oliver Eriksson is proof of this, with a dismal Q1 being compensated by a victorious Q2 and a fast Q3, meaning that the wet track would keep things leveled between supercars and FC2s
From second to fourth, the table had only supercars, with Ulrik Linnemann, Filip Martinsson and Maiko Tamm staying ahead of a methodic Fraser McConnell, while Viktor Vranckx and Mats Öhman staying in the middle of the table helped trapping the rest of the FC2s in the bottom half.
Semifinal 1 showed that the track was drying rapidly, with Martinsson quickly jumping in front of Eriksson and Öhman trailing them in third. The short Joker lane at Älvsbyn put Eriksson right behind Öhman, but this wasn’t enough to take the win from Martinsson, and behind them, McConnell and Casper Jansson were incapable of chasing the third placed Öhman.
Semifinal 2 had Tamm asserting dominance, which threw Linnemann off the ideal line and almost allowed Simon Olofsson to take second place. While Linnemann was chasing the leader Tamm, Vranckx was all over Olofsson, waiting for the tiniest mistake to grab the last spot in the Final. In the end, Tamm’s Joker in the final lap cost him the win, as Linnemann had enough pace to park his Ford Fiesta RX right in front of Tamm’s car, securing dominance until the finish, while Vranckx got the final spot behind the two victory contenders.
Martinsson outpaced everybody when the Final started, but he had Tamm and Linnemann all over him, with the Danish driver opting to Joker in the second lap to avoid getting stuck behind Vranckx, but the problem was that Linnemann lost pace and was holding Vranckx until the penultimate lap, where the two decided to throw blows at each other, which resulted in Linnemann getting third place on track, but being totally unable to chase second placed Tamm and race winner Martinsson.
After the race, Reinis Nitiss and the Race Control deemed Linnemann’s maneuver on Vranckx as avoidable contact, which stripped the Danish from the podium and promoted Oliver Eriksson to third. Oliver also conquered the FC2 Final moments before.
RallyX North - Älvsbyn II event results
Tamm is still the championship leader with 118 points while Linnemann has 99 and double winner Martinsson closes down in the title chase with his 90 points, leaving Vranckx in fourth as the outsider with 81 points.
The competitors will move to Linnemann’s territory as Nysum will host rounds 7 and 8 on 2 and 3 August.
PHOTO: RallyX
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