Mattias Ekström
was like the fans present at Hockenheim, splitting attention between
the FIA World Rallycross Championship
and the Deutsche Tourenwagen Masters.
Although the Swede was as always trying his luck in two different
competitions in the same day, at least the rallycross part was done
deal for him, as EKSRX
was the dominant force in German lands.
His domination
started in the qualifying heats, as Ekström and Toomas
Heikkinen were spread by a strong Johan
Kristoffersson in a VAG Group 1-2-3.
The huge blow of the Saturday was on
Timmy Hansen’s side, when during the
Q3 his Peugeot 208 WRX
went down to flames, which were immediately controlled. The Team
Peugeot Hansen driver went back to race
in the Q4 with an emergency fix in the car, but the No. 21 Peugeot
was underweight, and as a result, it was disqualified.
Then came the Sunday
and the first semifinal, the EKSRX drivers protected their 1-2 from
the Peugeot Hansen army right behind, with Topi Heikkinen taking the
lead. While the Finnish driver opened the gap, Ekström acted as his
shield from the fury of Sébastien Loeb,
who missed the target and went down to fifth.
Eventually, both
Peugeot Hansen cars missed the opportunity to pass Ekström, and this
backfired on Davy Jeanney and Loeb, as Andreas
Bakkerud put his Ford
Focus RS RX in front of them and Robin
Larsson in his Audi
A1 RX, while Loeb had a hot meeting
with the tire barrier. Larsson took advantadge of a swift Joker Lap
and then jumped to third.
Heikkinen and
Ekström were a mile ahead of the rest and guaranteed their places in
the final, and in the other group, Jeanney tried a desperate move
into Larsson but spun in the last corner after clipping the barriers.
The outcome was an Audi 1-2-3, and Peugeot Hansen had a weekend to
forget at Hockenheim.
The second semifinal
went green with Johan Kristoffersson keeping the lead and being hit
in the left rear corner of his Volkswagen
Polo RX by Petter
Solberg. Then the Volkswagen
RX Sweden driver started the most epic
position defence seen in World RX, as the left rear tire was touching
the bent bodywork, and eventually got cut by it, leaving the Swedish
driver with only three tires, but he led the field in pure Liam Doran
style.
Do you think we
forgot the rest of the field? No, as hell was raised between Janis
Baumanis, Liam Doran and Petter Solberg, and as Baumanis left the
Joker on Lap 4, Kristoffersson blocked his way and the same left rear
corner of the Polo RX acted as a moving wall to Baumanis’s Ford
Fiesta ST RX, destroying the front
bodywork. Kristoffersson lost the lead in the start of the last lap,
still trying to combat Ken Block to get the third place, but the
effort was in vain, as Liam Doran won it, Solberg was second and
Block got the last spot to the final.
As World RX voice
Andrew Coley
said: “You don’t get this in any
forms of motorsports.” If you wanna
see the modern iteration of a gladiator arena in form of a race,
check the video below.
Final race is where
everything is decided, and EKSRX continued the good work by having
Heikkinen again in the lead while Ekström protected his second
place. Ken Block then tried to press Ekström, but no gap appeared.
On Lap 2 Solberg went too quick and almost hit the wall, and Larsson
who was following him made it a bit more spectacular and rolled, but
he went back to its wheels and kept going.
The Hockenheim Joker
was the most favorable possible, and Ekström dashed into the outside
of Heikkinen and took first place. The gaps then spread too much to
let an opportunity to overtake, and this was enough for Ekström to
win his first event of the season, for Heikkinen to complete the
EKSRX 1-2, and for Block to repeat his best World RX, dating back
from his one-off race at Hell, in Norway, in the 2014 season.
Ekström’s second
race of the Sunday in DTM
had him starting from the back of the field and although he fought
his way through it, he had to retire due to problems from contact
damage. Contact also happened in the DTM Race 1, where Ekström
finished 9th,
with Antônio Felix da Costa and later on with Gary Paffett, making
the British driver very upset about it.
The World RX
drivers’ standings has Ekström and Solberg tied with 48 points and
Heikkinen on their heels with 45 points. Between the teams, EKSRX
capitalized through its successful weekend with 93 points against 48
of Volkswagen RX Sweden and 40 of the Hoonigan
Racing Division.
Take the short time
until the World RX of Belgium to breathe a bit, as it will be held on
May 15th
at the Circuit Jules Tacheny, Mettet. François
Duval is the wildcard entry of the
event, keeping his tradition of participating of the Belgian round.
PHOTOS: EKSRX, Team Peugeot Hansen
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