After losing the original season starter at Essay just a week before the event, the FIA Euro RX1 Championship logged the first kilometers of the 2024 season at Höljes, with an inspired Patrick O’Donovan enjoying his weekend and collecting the fruits of the work that allowed him to make his World RX debut last season, as his technique was unbeatable over the different conditions that the Swedish track presented over the two days of the event.
Patrick O`Donovan had incredible performance and prevailed in the Heats while Peter Hedström’s change to a Peugeot 208 WRX was proven worthy by his second place in the table, with Sivert Svardal not losing his form from last season and Máté Benyó making himself a serious contender.
Semifinal 1 had a very wet surface awaiting for the drivers to let it rip, and O’Donovan saw his Peugeot 208 WRX slide a lot and move too little as Mika Liimatainen surprised everybody and got the lead, but O’Donovan’s early Joker left him in a good position as he soon caught up with rest of the field. Ollie O’Donovan was the first to swap positions with Patrick, while Svardal was caught off guard in the Joker Lap, though the slippery surface saved Liimatainen from the argy bargy, which secured the win for the Betomik Racing driver, with O’Donovan in second and Zoltán Koncseg in third as Svardal stopped with mechanical problems in the Final Lap.
The second Semifinal was as stacked as the first one, and Yury Belevskiy went straight to first from fourth while Benyó went sideways into the first corner barrier. Belevskiy had Euro RX3 graduate Damian Litwinowicz on his trail, but the Polish driver couldn’t do much to prevent Belevskiy’s victory, while Hedström, who had an awful launch, had a lucky strike as Mikko Ikonen retired and Filip Thorém spun in the final lap.
Belevskiy’s worries in the Final were in the front row, where he would face the rubber from the normal route mixed with the water, and while the Swiss tried to form a wall before O’Donovan and Hedström, he was moved aside in the first corner for the RX Racing driver to get the lead. Koncseg opted for an early Joker from third and wasn’t too far from the rest of the field as everybody was tiptoeing their ways around the track.
Thanks to Litwinowicz holding the drivers with Joker Laps done, O’Donovan had the comfortable advantage to keep the Peugeot 208 WRX in place, heading straight to the win while Liimatainen was second and Litwinowicz miraculously completed the podium.
Euro RX1 - Höljes RX event results
O’Donovan will move to Nyirád at the end of July with the lead in the table as he has 37 points against 33 from Liimatainen, 28 from Hedström and 26 from Litwinowicz and Belevskiy.
PHOTO: Team RX Racing
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