The third round of
the FIA World Rallycross Championship
at Mettet, Belgium, proved that Petter Solberg will have to step up
his game to face off Mattias EKström, winner of the event and
current World RX leader.
Ekström, Solberg,
Sébastien Loeb
and Johan Kristoffersson
were always on top-4 in the qualifiying standings, proving that the
fight would be down to them in the final stages.
The first semifinal
was about to start when Timur
Timerzyanov jumped the start, so Double
Joker for fim. When the lights finally went out, Mattias Ekström was
side by side with Sébastien Loeb to then take the lead while Davy
Jeanney received a push to a spin,
ruining his race.
While Ekström and
Loeb had the first and second positions locked, Janis
Baumanis was defending himself from the
super wildcard François Duval,
and in fact he succeeded to finish before the Belgian driver. But
then a black flag for Baumanis due to the contact that sent Jeanney
off the track, promoting Duval to the third place.
Second semifinal
came up and another driver jumped the start, which now was Timmy
Hansen, also meaning another Joker Lap
to his account. To add comedy to the tragedy, Reinis
Nitiss jumped the second start, also
receiving the infamous Double Joker. The third is to go, so Petter
Solberg had to deal with the Volkswagen
RX Sweden machines of Johan
Kristoffersson and Anton Marklund while Timmy Hansen made a mistake
in the first corner and was demoted to fifth.
The leading trio
flew ahead of the rest of the contenders, and Solberg specially was
in a good run with Kristoffersson behind him and Marklund sandwiched
by Hansen and Kevin Eriksson after his Joker Lap. While Solberg and
Kristoffersson kept their positions, Hansen was a man on a mission,
trying to do his second Joker Lap before Marklund comes.
Unfortunately for Hansen, he went too wide when attacking the Joker
and Marklund got past him to get the last spot to the final.
Three of the
attractions of the World RX, Ekström, Loeb and Solberg, were in the
final and judging by their group talk before the go signal, they were
in good spirits. Also, everybody was concentrated not just in going
to the lead but also in surviving after the tricky first corner.
Once the green
lights were on Ekström dominated the front while Marklund surprised
everyone by blasting off from sixth to second from the go to the
first corner. Problem is, Marklund missed the corner and almost had
his Polo RX in the tire barriers. With this, Ekström was leading
Loeb and Solberg on Lap 3.
Ekström kept the
fast pace of the weekend, not giving a sight of a chance for Loeb to
pass, and then crossing the line to win another event in World RX.
Loeb finished second and Solberg completed the podium. Marklund still
found pace to finish fourth while Duval finished fifth due to a
puncture.
Ekström explained
about another master weekend, saying: “I’m
so happy, it’s just too demanding to do this, because the
adrenaline shock from my body is pretty high. The car was perfect all
weekend long, and did one mistake in Q4 with Loeb which I apologize
for but the rest was really perfect and I’m so happy because the
car drives so wonderfully and my guys work day and night for this.”
The driver’s
championship is taking the shape of a Solberg vs. Ekström battle, as
the World RX champion loses his lead to the DTM driver, being 78
points against 73. Lurking behind them, Kristoffersson is third with
58 points and Loeb has 54. Between the teams, EKSRX
keeps their domination with 124 points against 83 from Volkswagen RX
Sweden and 77 from Team Peugeot-Hansen, stealing the third place from
Hoonigan Racing Division.
The temple of
rallycross now waits the World RX drivers on May 27th,
with Guy Wilks
back to action in his homeland, now with an Olsbergs MSE Fiesta ST,
Tanner Foust
back to World RX in a VWRX Sweden Polo RX, and the other wildcard
entries will be the EuroRX driver Derek
Tohill and the British RX double
champion Julian Godfrey.
PHOTO: EKSRX
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