Johan Kristoffersson is proving race by race that his return to the FIA World Rallycross Championship is to mount a title challenge, and the outstanding performance in the first event of the Kouvola RX double header will certainly be one of his presentation cards for the season.
The Finnish circuit saw the World RX return with nice weather, and with no RallyX Nordic clashes and with Rallicross-SM, the Finnish national championship, being cancelled, some local wildcards saw their chance to test their abilities against the World class regulars, with Jere Kalliokoski and Juha Rytkönen being the ones to watch due to personal accolades and previous international experience.
Johan Kristoffersson was still in a learning process and building up pace in the track, but this was more than enough to crush the opposition in both Q1 and Q2, with Mattias Ekström having to play catch up, which wasn’t possible in Q3 as he found Niclas Grönholm in front, so the Volkswagen Polo GTi RX had clear way to reign over the field.
The surprises of the Saturday in the qualifying were Juha Rytkönen and Jere Kalliokoski, making sure the track knowledge would serve them best and qualifying 4th and 12th, respectively. Not surprising was the problems piling up for GCK, which again affected all cars including the RX Cartel ones, including a broken rim in Liam Doran’s, allowing only Andreas Bakkerud and Anton Marklund to go to the Semifinals.
Kouvola RX 1 - Qualifying intermediate results
The Semifinal 1 had Kristoffersson dominating while the field settled for the other positions. The early Joker Lap gave Grönholm the clear way he needed to push, but at the end it wasn’t enough to counter Kristoffersson’s speed as the Swede won the race and Timmy Hansen barely held to second place as Grönholm had what it takes to go higher than third.
Semifinal 2 had the upset of the day as Juha Rytkönen proved his Rallicross-SM title wasn’t for nothing, imposing himself from Turn 1 and letting no one come close, even Mattias Ekström, who eventually had problems halfway with his Audi S1 EKS RX.
With all Joker Laps done, Rytkönen was dominant though Kevin Hansen was eager to put up a good fight while Timo Scheider was in place to secure third place, but in the end things just were kept as they were, especially with Jere Kalliokoski being incapable of reaching Scheider while the KYB Team JC duo was simply nowhere.
Kouvola RX 1 - Semifinal results
The front row for the final had a double World champion and a fast wildcard side by side, and although losing the first corner battle, Rytkönen made sure he could follow Kristoffersson and protect himself from Timmy Hansen.
Kristoffersson honored his advantage and just outpaced everyone for the flag, and behind him Juha Rytkönen also secured his second place by leaving Timmy Hansen behind for third, who had to deal with Niclas Grönholm all over him.
PHOTO: Kristoffersson Motorsport
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