KRIS T OFFERS SON KEEPS UP HIS RECORD-BREAKING PACE
Hal ridge watches as vwpol oman inches closer to the title
Traditionally, the anecdote of a game of two halves is reserved for football. But, at the Loheac circuit in Brittany last weekend, the phrase was equally applicable for the latest instalment of the World Rallycross Championship.
That was true because, firstly, the first day in the ninth round of the series was held in blazing sunshine and bone-dry track conditions that then turned into consistent rain and a treacherously slippery surface for the duration of day two.
It was also true because both PSRX Volkswagen Sweden drivers Johan Kristoffersson and Petter Solberg suffered front-left punctures during the six-lap final, one at the start and one at the finish, both collected in the joker lap section.
There are a number of critical elements required to become a World champion in any motorsport discipline. Those major factors include being incredibly talented, having competitive machinery and a good dose of luck to go alongside.
Had Kristoffersson taken his compulsory joker one lap earlier in the French final, he may not have racked up his record-breaking fourth successive victory and eighth consecutive podium. But, as it was, the Swede finished top of the Intermediate Classification, won semi-final one and the final to extend his lead in the series over team-mate Solberg to 46 points with three rounds remaining.
In contrast, Solberg’s weekend was hampered by start-line stalls and getting stuck in traffic in the qualifying stages, but he recovered to start on the second row of the final. He had challenged Kristoffersson for race victory in their semi-final encounter.
Taking his joker on the first tour in the final in a bid to leapfrog those ahead, Solberg collected a puncture that would drop him to the rear of the field. By the time Kristoffersson got to the final lap and took his joker, he had pulled out more than five seconds over second placed Sebastien Loeb and cruised to victory.
But, it wasn’t a weekend of Volkswagen Motorsport-built Polo GTI domination that has been the case in recent months in World RX. Points leader Kristoffersson set the pace in Q1, but Loeb might have been quicker had the rally legend not lost time behind Mattias Ekstrom’s Audi S1 in the opening laps of the race. In Q2, in a head-to-head with Kristoffersson, Loeb set the fastest time to lead at the end of the day. As the rain fell on Sunday morning, it was Ekstrom’s turn to be fastest in Q3, before Kristoffersson returned to the top of the order in Q4 and secured top spot in the Intermediate Classification, and the 16 championship points that go with it.
Twelve months previously, Kristoffersson had scored his only win of the 2016 campaign by dominating the second day of the event at Loheac. Come the semi-finals and final, it was a similar scenario this time around. The Swede was the only driver to maintain an undirtied windscreen for the duration of the final 12 laps of the event as he led the semi and final throughout and moved another significant step closer to becoming the third driver to have his name etched on the World RX drivers’ championship trophy.
Timmy Hansen joined Kristoffersson on the front row for the final having chased down and passed team-mate Loeb with a superior joker lap strategy in semi-final two. He ran second to Kristoffersson on the opening lap of the final, even applying pressure to the rear bumper of the Polo at the circuit’s hairpin.
It was at the same point on lap two that Hansen made a mistake and ran wide, allowing Loeb through. On lap four his race ended with transmission issues and was passed by Ekstrom and Andreas Bakkerud.
Loeb finished the final second at home, one place better than at the event in 2016 and his fourth straight podium of the 2017 campaign.
Ekstrom, meanwhile, who has admitted that wet conditions are his EKS squad’s best chance of success, scored his first podium since the third round of the series at Hockenheim, where he claimed victory, the last NON-PSRX Volkswagen Sweden driver to do so.
Bakkerud finished the final in fourth and Solberg crept across the line in fifth with his puncture. Bakkerud’s teammate, Ken Block, had another sterling performance, set third fastest time in Q2 and maintained his run of qualifying for every semi-final in 2017. But, the Gymkhana star spun in the wet conditions of semi-final one and didn’t repeat his French final appearances of 2014 and 2016.
Reigning European Rallycross champion and former British RX Junior Champion Kevin Hansen starred in a 2016-spec Peugeot-hansen 208 and qualified eighth, but was denied a chance of challenging for a place in the final due to a puncture in semi-final two after contact. Former works WRC driver Alister Mcrae made his World RX debut in the Loco World RX Team Volkswagen Polo that Kristoffersson used to win the Loheac round last season. Mcrae spent the event getting acclimatised to the sport and the car and set a best time of 18th in Q1.