Kristoffersson tops Qualifying at Riga with a bit of drama

The first round of the FIA European Rallycross Championship at Riga had a bit of everything in the Qualifying heats, even though the same well known face was at the top of the standings. Johan Kristoffersson, technically on a part-time effort, came out in first despite three horrendous starts after Q1, with the high competitiveness of the field doing the rest of the job when he wasn’t the dominant force in his Volkswagen Polo KMS 601 RX.
 
Riga RX - Intermediate standings
 
While Johan Kristoffersson got the Intermediate top spot, his Qualifying performance was really far off the dominating consistency that gave him eight World RX titles, mostly because of the starts. While he got everything right in Q1, reaction delays in the following three heats meant he and Ole Christian Veiby had to play catch up with the competition, and while they would succeed in recovering the positions with lap time pace, the total race times took the damage and opened the door for other drivers to prevail.
 
First was Joni Turpeinen, who only ended in sixth in the table because of a bad Q3, but was always around his team mate and second placed Juha Rytkönen when the two were in the same races. With the intense fights for position slowing down the other races in Q3, a returning Rokas Baciuska took the top spot of that heat in his second event with the Hyundai i20 RX, while Hungarian sensation Andor Trepák improved on his Nyirád RX 2025 performance and topped the times in Q4, being just behind Turpeinen and ahead of Baciuska in the table.
 
Andreas Bakkerud returned to Euro RX without a top time, but showing that his Ford Fiesta ST RX was a frontrunning car, getting third place in the Intermediate standings, while Veiby appeared in fourth and saved an equally frustrating Qualifying. The table didn’t have any sort of consistency, with the fights and track condition going on a roller coaster, with Euro RX champion Patrick O’Donovan appearing in eighth, double Euro RX runner-up Janis Baumanis being in ninth, while the other 2025 Euro RX event winners were in the mid-pack, with Damian Litwinowicz being in eleventh, Maiko Tamm being fifteenth and Zoltán Koncseg being eighteenth.
 
With 24 cars qualifying to the Quarter-finals, most of the few who didn’t make it had trouble with their cars instead of not being up there with the competition. Attila Mózer dropped out and Márk Mózer got his Ford Fiesta RX after the team’s Renault Megane R.S. RX was unable to enter the event, and Pailler Competition had engine trouble to solve in their Megane, and despite the best efforts to carry on the repairs on site, Fabien Pailler was unable to go to the track. René Münnich couldn’t line up his new SEAT Ibiza RX too, although Mandie August had no problems with her car, narrowly qualifying for the knockout stages.
 
Newcomer Mart Tikkerbär showed promise, but mechanical issues in his Peugeot 208 WRX ended his weekend, in special and engine fire. A driveshaft issue proved to be much more detrimental to Martin Enlund’s Rally2 based Ford Fiesta RX than it was thought initially, with things only going downhill there.
 
PHOTO: Kristoffersson Motorsport