Argentina again is
the place for the season finale of the FIA
World Rallycross Championship, but this
is also the last event to be held at Rosario as the circuit will give
place to Cape Town, South Africa, from 2017 onwards. Andreas Bakkerud
got the last win of the season, and EKSRX celebrated their first
teams’ championship title.
With the title race
lost, Petter Solberg
promised to go for the event win, and in the qualifying heats he
proved his will by winning from Q1 to Q4, leaving no chance for the
opposition. While that, the teams’ title was still up for grabs,
and EKSRX
was with the upper hand with both Mattias
EKström and Toomas
Heikkinen in the semifinals, while Team
Peugeot-Hansen only had Sébastien
Loeb to keep fighting as Timmy Hansen
missed the advance by a little.
Semifinal 1 started
with Ekström doing a jump start and adding a Joker lap to his
account, and then when things went for real, Ekström and Johan
Kristoffersson had clear path ahead
while Timur Timerzyanov made a mess into turn 1, throwing away the
good start of Janis Baumanis and promoting Petter Solberg to third
place.
Unfortunately for
Solberg, damage in the left front wheel slowed him down and ended
with his hopes when he crashed into the barriers on lap 5, with
Heikkinen getting the third place. Right ahead, the double Joker that
Ekström had to make took his lead away and Kristoffersson won the
heat. Solberg still drove the smashed car to the finish and the team
started fixing it while hoping to capitalize in a protest, but the
effort went to nowhere.
In the second
semifinal, more first corner mess shuffles positions except for the
leader Andreas Bakkerud,
with Timo Scheider
and Robin Larsson
coming in second and third.
Bakkerud was miles
ahead while Scheider was having a comfortable run, with only Larsson
having to keep pushing to escape from Loeb. The WRC champion tried a
maneuver, only to be thrown out by Larsson. Bakkerud won it with
Scheider keeping his second place and Larsson crossed in this,
finally without opposition.
Bakkerud started the
final with a strong lead with Kristoffersson and Heikkinen going for
the chase. Ekström was the first to Joker, but it would need more to
overcome Bakkerud’s pace.
Curiously, EKström
was blocked by Heikkinen when the Finnish driver left the Joker, and
with both EKSRX cars way behind, Bakkerud’s job was to just go to
the Joker and hold Kristoffersson at bay, which the Hoonigan boy
thoroughly did, winning his third event in the season, more even than
Solberg.
The bad final run
for Solberg cost him the runner-up place as Kristoffersson ended the
championship in second with 240 points and Bakkerud had the same 239
points of Solberg, but had more wins in the season. EKSRX clinched
the teams’ championship with 422 points against 387 of Team
Peugeot-Hansen.
The 2017 season starts on April 2nd at Barcelona, but we still have a 2016 season review coming here.
PHOTO: FIA World Rallycross
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