The Circuit Jules Tacheny at Mettet
in Belgium is the place for turnarounds in the FIA World
Rallycross Championship, specially as carnage occurs from time to
time at the famous Turn 1 drop and some tricky sections of the track.
This was more than enough to give to Johan Kristoffersson his
first World RX win in 2017, and also to avoid Mattias Ekström
to get his fourth win out of four events.
PSRX Volkswagen finally
confirmed its position as top team in qualifying with a 1-2 of Johan
Kristoffersson and Petter Solberg, while Timmy Hansen
was third and Andreas Bakkerud did things right and qualified
in fourth. Problems in Q4 put Mattias Ekström down to eighth, but at
least he didn't miss the semifinals.
On semifinal 1Timmy Hansen took the
lead ahead the Turn 1 dropoff with Kristoffersson and Kevin Eriksson
taking second and third while Toomas Heikkinen went too wide and
sideways and crashed in the barriers. Same fate went to Sébastien
Loeb, but it was due to contact, although he still got back to
the game.
Loeb somehow recovered to fourth place
but succumbed to the problems in his Peugeot 208 WRX on Lap 4. Hansen
kept it clean and won easily while Kristoffersson gave everyone a
scare as he went wide in the Joker Lap but managed to be second,
while Kevin Eriksson held Toomas Heikkinen to be third while Timo
Scheider lost his position going to the Joker Lap.
Semifinal 2 had Andreas Bakkerud
powering to the lead while Ken Block forced his way to second
place while 3-wide with Mattias Ekström and Petter Solberg after
Turn 1, although the Hoonigan owner lost ground to Petter
Solberg after his Joker Lap.
Bakkerud was keeping the gap good but
then a series of crazy incidents happened, with Niclas Grönholm
smashing the tire barriers of Turn 3 and Block crashing nose first,
which slowed down a bit the pace of the race. In the end both
Bakkerud and Ekström had to Joker and were relegated to second and
third as Petter Solberg's early move paid dividends into the
semifinal victory.
Lots of skilled drivers can't guarantee
a safe Turn 1 trip at Mettet, but things were pretty clean at the
start of the Final as Solberg got first place while followed by
Hansen and Kristoffersson.
Carnage then started on Lap 3 as
Solberg lost the back of his Volkswagen Polo Gti and had Hansen side
by side, and in an attempt to get first place back and he oversped
and clipped the barriers while a bit behind Andreas Bakkerud also
lost the rear by trying to avoid Solberg and ended in the Turn 1
barriers with a front end crash.
After Solberg's Joker, Ekström held
the PSRX Volkswagen duo while Hansen had a good advantage, ruined by
a puncture on Lap 5, as proved when he went to a late Joker Lap.
Hansen still dashed to the finish and managed to stay ahead of
Solberg by 0.011 seconds, but the winner of the day was Johan
Kristoffersson as he kept it clean all the time and broke Ekström's
streak, as the EKS owner finished just outside the podium.
And not only Ekström lost his streak
but his qualifying performance also left him in a dangerous position
even though he still in the lead with 101 points, as Kristoffersson
follows him with 98 points and Petter Solberg comes in third with 87
points. PSRX Volkswagen still rules between the teams with 185 points
thanks to EKS' poor showing, as they sit in second with 145 points
and Team Peugeot-Hansen comes closer with 134 points.
On May 27th we will see the
final edition of the World RX of Great Britain at the famous Lydden
Hill Circuit as the event will move to Silverstone in 2018.
PHOTO: FIA World Rallycross Championship
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