Johan Kristoffersson isn’t an eight time World RX and RallyX champion for nothing, and while he may have his bad moments like any other driver, he generally bounces back with some force and more, like he did in the FIA European Rallycross Championship Qualifying at Lohéac.
The catch of this event isn’t only that the 30 car field was big, but also that a lot of interesting names were present, like a returning Sébastien Loeb with an Eleven Motorsport Peugeot 208 WRX, Rokas Baciuska returning to a Hyundai i20 RX, Kevin Hansen driving a Hyundai too after moving to RallyX Americas, RX4 leader Andrea Benezet stepping up to a supercar, and also Julien Febreau, who was with the role of the Rallycross France guy taking on the Euro RX regulars.
The sky decided to not stay in a good mood and rain was a thing on Saturday and overnight on Sunday, and this influenced some of the Heats in Qualifying, with Juha Rytkönen winning a soaked Q1, while with a dry track, Andreas Bakkerud had a dream drive to conquer the Q2, though the Norwegian couldn’t repeat it in Q3, and with Johan Kristoffersson boxed in his race, Fabien Pailler emerged as the local hero. The only problem is that there was the Q4 on Sunday, and Kristoffersson basically decided to wipe the floor with the field and crushed the clock to win Q4 and be the top qualifier, barely ahead of Rytkönen, Pailler and Bakkerud.
Loeb was only sixth behind Ole Christian Veiby, but demonstrated he still has pace despite the long time from a rallycross supercar, while Rokas Baciuska had some glimpses of speed but was only 13th, and Kevin Hansen could be spared of demonstrating pace as he was getting used to the new car, appearing only in 18th. Near the elimination zone, Mats Öhman barely saved himself while black flag incidents buried the chances of both Andrea Benezet and Johannes Rafoss initially, but Benezet's penalty was reversed later, sending him to 12th while Öhman was eliminated.
Lohéac RX - Intermediate standings
PHOTO: Kristoffersson Motorsport
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