FIA World Rallycross, the story so far...
We are just days away from the first FIA World Rallycross Championship to be hosted at Silverstone. But before things get underway, here is a roundup of what has happened in the first three rounds of the championship so far.
Image FIA WRX
Round 1: World RX of Spain
There was drama at the opening round when it came to final. Petter Solberg in the PSRX Volkswagen Sweden was on pole with Mattias Ekstrӧm, the winner in Spain the two years previous, alongside him. Side-by-side going into turn one, Ekstrӧm running on the outside squeezed Solberg into the wall. A controversial incident that lead to Ekstrӧm being disqualified from the race.
Defending champion, Johan Kristoffersson, came out of the first corner incident in second place and gave the race to Ekstrӧm, but couldn’t make the move past. However, with Ekstrӧm’s exclusion Kristoffersson was awarded the victory. Sebastien Loeb in the Team Peugeot Total inherited second place and the EKS Audi Sport of Andreas Bakkerud was promoted to third. Niclas Gronholm took fourth and Solberg fifth.
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Round 2: World RX of Portugal
The first World RX final to be run in the snow saw Kristoffersson pick up another victory in his title defence. It was a race that came down to the timings of the joker laps and saw Loeb pick up second place again, whilst Solberg joined them on the podium.
Bakkerud missed out on a podium down to the jokers to take fourth whilst Guerlain Chicherit, in the GC Kompetition’s first season, took fifth holding off Timmy Hansen.
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Round 3: World RX of Belgium
In a thrilling race Loeb took his first World RX win since 2016 whilst the drama was behind. Making a good start from the grid Loeb was able to take the lead by turn one. Pole sitter Kristoffersson, was squeezed by teammate Solberg, riding the inside wall he took turn one on two wheels. Hansen made the most out of this and from last on the grid moved up into second place, whilst Bakkerud lost out.
Solberg had been setting fastest laps at the start of the race and this was enough to secure him second place with Hansen third. Ekstrӧm took the fastest laps later in the race to move himself up to fourth in front of Kristoffersson and teammate Bakkerud.
Image FIA WRX
Heading into Silverstone, the World RX of Great Britain, and Loeb is the only driver to have taken a win on the new circuit after competing in round one of the British Rallycross Championship earlier in the year. Will we see him take his second win in a row, will it be championship leader Kristoffersson or will we see the third winner of the 2018 season? One things for sure it is set to be another good weekend.
