Mark lund tops the european battlers

Reigning RX2 International Series champion Cyril Raymond hadn’t been able to secure a Supercar deal for the first round of either the World or European Rallycross Championships ahead of the season opener in Barcelona last month.

He headed to Belgium for the second round of Euro RX in a Red Bull-backed, Peugeot Sportbuilt 208 WRX and dominated the qualifying stages on his international Supercar debut.

He again dominated in semi-final one ahead of reigning Euro RX champion Anton Marklund to secure pole position for the final. But, as with the World RX runners, pole was ultimately where the Frenchman didn’t want to be and, as the lights changed, he was passed by secondrow starter Marklund and former Super1600 contender Ulrik Linnemann in the run to Turn 1.

Round one winner Reinis Nitiss had dropped back from the front row at the start of the final with an intermittent driveshaft problem, but took his joker on lap one and leapfrogged Raymond for track position when Raymond also took his joker on lap three, both having also overtaken Linnemann in an older specification Polo.

The 2017 title-holder Marklund took his joker on lap four and returned to the main circuit just fractions ahead of Nitiss to maintain the lead and score victory ahead of the Latvian, while Raymond was third ahead of Peter Hedstrom and Linnemann. Anders Braten was sixth.

Ben-philip Gundersen won the RX2 final but reigning British Rallycross champion Nathan Heathcote didn’t make the semi-finals in his series debut after rolling at the first corner of his Q4 race in a similar fashion to Grosset-janin. Fredrik Salsten won the Touringcar final.