The red cauldron was the host venue of the second FIA European Rallycross Championship round in 2026, and with a tight contest between Johan Kristoffersson and Andreas Bakkerud, pace, tactics and even luck were decisive factors at Nyirád, which ultimately put Bakkerud on top with his Ford Fiesta ST RX.
The key point of the Qualifying was Andreas Bakkerud’s pace while not allowing too much space for Johan Kristoffersson, which worked for a Q1 top spot, while Kristoffersson countered when he had clean air in Q2. The rain came in Q3 but this was an exception amid the dry sessions of Saturday and Sunday, with Joni Turpeinen making the SET Promotion tactics work for him to get a top time, while Bakkerud topped the Q4 and consequently the Intermediate table.
The changing conditions reflected on most of the order of the Intermediate table, with Turpeinen and Juha Rytkönen being third and fourth as normal, but Ulrik Linnemann having a good session to appear in fifth, ahead of an Ole Christian Veiby in recovery mode. Fabien Pailler finally had his Renault Megane R.S. RX ready to compete and was seventh, ahead of Damian Litwinowicz, who is in his last Euro RX outing of 2026 due to low budget. Local hero Tamás Kárai appears in ninth, while Patrick O’Donovan was tenth with ups and downs in his quest.
Andor Trepák appeared in 12th while the rest of the Hungarians in the grid sweated a lot to get in the Quarter Finals, with László Kiss being 21 st and Márk Mózer being 23 rd in a lately acquired Peugeot 208 WRX.
At the bottom half of the table, Attila Mózer lost the transfer battle with Eddy Benezet by a single point while José Oliveira never recovered the pace from the Q1 crash. Bruno Beckert, Norbert Beckert and Ján Beckert tried their best but never left the last positions, while Ales Fucik had to leave the event after an engine failure in Q1.
Andreas Bakkerud started well the first Quarter Final, but had Casper Jansson on his back for the first part of the race. Bakkerud had total control of the remainder of the race to win it while Jansson was in a comfortable second and Johannes Rafoss defended his third position until the end from Tamás Kárai.
Race 2 had Johan Kristoffersson leading but failing to help Ole Christian Veiby with the KMS tactics, which promoted Patrick O’Donovan to second. Things got worse when Veiby got behind a Nils Volland without a Joker Lap, but with the rest of the contenders being too slow to react, the positions stood the same as Kristoffersson led O’Donovan and Veiby.
Third race had Joni Turpeinen leading Fabien Pailler while Martin Enlund and João Ribeiro crashed themselves out. Pailer and Turpeinen ran their battle for the lead, with the Finnish driver taking the advantage and winning the race by a tiny margin, while Paulius Pleskovas emerged as a surprise and took third place with certain ease.
The last Quarter Final was led by Juha Rytkönen while Damian Litwinowicz, Andor Trepák and Anton Seppä were on the chase. Litwinowicz went to the Joker first to avoid being stuck into Rytkönen’s back and this positioned him well in third with clean air to chase Trepák and Rytkönen, but in the end the Automax driver stood behind them as the qualification for the Semifinals was secure.
Semifinal 1 had Bakkerud leading from a side by side start with Turpeinen, while Jansson opted to follow them and Pailler nearly got swiped by Rafoss. Even though Pailler tried his best, he wasn’t able to get close enough to mount an attack on the top three, so the positions were unchanged until the finish line.
The second Semifinal had a side by side melee between Kristoffersson and Rytkönen that saw the Swedish take the lead O’Donovan and Trepák were following Rytkönen. Contact with Veiby at the Joker merge eliminated O’Donovan, With the Joker done, Rytkönen and Veiby just waited for Trepák’ Joker, and while Kristoffersson just ran free for the win, Rytkönen and Veiby took second and third on track once Trepák did a final lap Joker.
The Final had Kristoffersson in the wall in the first corner while Bakkerud led Turpeinen and Rytkönen, with KMS boxed at the back as Veiby opted for an early Joker. With Casper Jansson not matching the pace that Bakkerud and Rytkönen were putting, he got relegated to fifth behind Veiby and then sixth, while Turpeinen was third and waiting for the Joker laps of the cars in front. Bakkerud came to the final lap with a massive margin over Rytkönen, so he just had to a tidy Joker to do to then run to the checkered flag and win in Hungary.
Nyirád RX - Event results
Bakkerud has 65 points against the 64 of Kristoffersson, with Veiby being third with 54 points, Turpeinen has 53 and Rytkönen has 48. The gulf to the rest of the field is made more noticeable as Patrick O’Donovan and Jansson hold the sixth position with only 26 points each, while Trepák is eighth with 17 points.
The next event in the calendar is the Magic Weekend at Höljes on 5 July.
PHOTO: FIA Rallycross Championships
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