After a month
stopped, the FIA World Rallycross
Championship returned to action
crossing the Atlantic and arriving at the Circuit Trois-Rivières in
Canada. Timmy Hansen
had to overcome all problems possible to take an unexpected victory
on Canadian soil, his first in 2016.
During the
qualifying heats he wasn’t exactly someone to bet your bucks as his
runs weren’t worth a heat win, and combined with a retirement in
the second heat, the mess left Timmy on tenth in the intermediate
standings, barely qualifying to the semifinals.
The first semifinal
saw top qualifier Petter Solberg
ruling everything from the first corner while
Johan Kristoffersson tried to disturb
him while Ken Block
held Anton Marklund and Sébastien Loeb. The first two were far ahead
the opposition while Block looked for an opportuinity to pass
Marklund after the joker lap to get third place, but all efforts came
to nothing as a broken suspension in the final lap halted the
progress of the stunt driver, giving open way to confirm Solberg,
Kristoffersson and Marklund in the final.
The second semifinal
was a bit more troubled, with Mattias
Ekström becoming the leader while
Andreas Bakkerud
ruined the EKSRX
party by staying between Eki and Topi Heikkinen. A lap later,
Bakkerud took the lead after Ekström suffered a puncture, meaning
the World RX leader would be out of the final.
Soon the main battle
was Bakkerud versus Timur Timerzyanov
as the World RX Team Austria driver tried everything up on his sleeve
to overtake Bakkerud without any success, and after the joker he got
caught in a battle for the second place with Heikkinen, recovering
the place after forcing Topi to a mistake. Unfortunately the FIA
stewards saw a controversial push from Timur into Heikkinen in the
last lap and excluded the Russian from the final, which brought
fourth-placed Hansen to the grid.
The final saw
changing conditions in the track, as the sunny day gave place to a
quick shower to spice up things. In the wet track, Toomas
Heikkinen started in the lead, but his
lack of grip proved to be a hassle compared to the well balanced
Peugeot 208 WRX, making the EKSRX driver go down to third while
Hansen took first place with Bakkerud right behind.
The Ford Focus RS RX
was outstandingly quick on dry conditions, but the wet weather wasn’t
on its favor, so Bakkerud wasn’t unable to threat Hansen, giving a
highly celebrated first win in 2016 to the young Swede, with Bakkerud
and Kristoffersson completing the podium.
After the finish in
the middle of the celebration, Anton Marklund lost the brakes of his
Volkswagen Polo RX gave a hard hit in the back of Solberg’s Citroën
DS3 RX, sending the current World RX double champion to the hospital
to be checked. Outside some pain and bruises, both drivers are fine. Petter still found time to some humour despite the pain.
Now the World RX
sets its return to Europe to arrive in France, more specifically at
Lohéac on
September 4th,
in one of the highlights of the season, as high quality wildcards and
packed stands are a common thing in the circuit.
PHOTO: Team Peugeot-Hansen
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