The
Barcelona-Catalunya circuit saw this Sunday (18) a change in its
possibilities of fun with the ninth round of the FIA
World Rallycross Championship, and
Mattias Ekström
continued his winning tradition by leaving Spain with another
triumph.
The Swedish heroes
Timmy Hansen,
Johan Kristoffersson
and Mattias Ekström shared the qualifier heat wins and were the
top-3, with Andreas Bakkerud coming as a strong outsider to ruin the
party.
Hansen and Ekström
were the top on the grid for Semifinal 1 and both kept their
authority with Ekström in first while Petter
Solberg’s position climb saw a
determined Robin Larsson
get in his way, stealing by force the third position.
Larsson’s bet was
in an early Joker Lap, and with this he was able to hold Solberg and
Sébastien Loeb, but the rally master wouldn’t quit the last spot
in the final so easily, chasing Larsson until a crash in the barriers
and a spin brought the Team
Peugeot-Hansen driver to a halt. The
3-way battle was enough to give room for Ekström to come home first
and Timmy Hansen in second, and even though the gap was close,
Solberg wasn’t able to offer a challenge to third-placed Larsson.
Second semifinal is
a go and while Johan Kristoffersson held the lead a four-way battle
for second was won immediately by Timur
Timerzyanov. Although pretty close,
Kristoffersson and Timerzyanov kept a high pace and distanced
themselves from the competition, with Toomas Heikkinen being in a
lone third place.
Heikkinen then was
trapped by Janis Baumanis
when the Finn left the Joker losing his third place, and things just
got better for World RX Team Austria,
with Timerzyanov overtaking Kristoffersson in the last corner of the
final lap and winning the semifinal 2.
Bakkerud was later on excluded due to excessive contact, received then a black flag.
Point a favorite to
the final at Barcelona was a difficult task even with the big names
there, but Mattias Ekström proved his worth at the start and became
the early leader with Timerzyanov on his tail.
Ekström,
Timerzyanov and Hansen were delaying the Joker as much as possible
due to the tight battle, and going earlier proved to be a bad choice
for Timerzyanov as he was unable to hold the leaders, eventually
losing even the podium when Kristoffersson passed him after the
hairpin. A bit ahead, the EKSRX
boss was unstoppable, leaving only the rear view of his Audi S1 to
Timmy Hansen as he conquered his fourth win in the 2016 season.
Kristoffersson received a black flag later on and was excluded from the final, promoting Timerzyanov to the podium.
Ekström now holds a
10-point lead in the standings against Solberg, with them having 204
and 194 points respectively, while Kristoffersson can remotely think
in the title with his 178 points. EKSRX also leads in the teams
standings with 318 points while Team Peugeot-Hansen, their only
potential rival, has 297 points.
On October 2nd
Latvia officially joins the World RX history with the event at the
Bikernieki National Sports Base, with Reinis Nitiss and Janis
Baumanis being the main attractions, along with the return of Gigi
Galli and his Kia Rio RX.
PHOTO: EKSRX
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