WORLD RALLY CROSS TAKES OFF AT SILVERSTONE
KRIS TO FF ER SS ON WINS IN FRONT OF 27,000 FANS
Never take out your team-mate; an age-old mantra for any multi-car motorsport outfit. A driver’s team-mate is the first target to beat, but making contact with said target, or even worse still – taking them out of the running – is totally out of the question.
For the third time in the World Rallycross Championship’s first four rounds this season, two high-profile team-mates came together in the final stages of an event as Silverstone made its debut appearance in the series.
This time, the crash was a scenario that had huge implications to the outcome of the final, which was won by points leader Johan Kristoffersson.
The reigning champion’s PSRX Volkswagen Sweden team-mate Petter Solberg had topped the order on day one, setting the fastest time in Q1 12 months to the weekend since his most recent World RX win, at Lydden Hill. Until the Silverstone round, Kristoffersson hadn’t set a single fastest qualifying time in 2018. He rectified that statistic by being fastest in Q3 and Q4 on Sunday morning to climb to the top of the Intermediate Classification, assisted in part by Mattias Ekstrom and Solberg being stuck behind the ailing Peugeot 208 of Timmy Hansen for more than two laps in Q4, dropping the pair of former World RX champions down the Intermediate rankings.
Last season, as PSRX dominated much of the campaign, the preferable starting position for its drivers would be for each to start on pole position in the two semi-finals, meaning they only met head-to-head in the final. But at Silverstone, with Solberg qualifying third, he joined Kristoffersson on the front row for semi-final one.
As the lights changed and the pack rushed to the first corner, Solberg’s Polo pulled ahead of Kristoffersson’s, but wasn’t a full car length clear, for a second event in succession the pair made contact.
The Volkswagen drivers had come together in the run to the first corner of the final in Belgium a fortnight earlier but, while Kristoffersson survived a two-wheeled moment at Mettet, this time around the front-left wheel of the Swede’s car made contact with the right-rear of Solberg’s, sending his Polo into the air and off the circuit.
As Kristoffersson heavily impacted the tyre wall on the inside of Turn 1, the track furniture got pushed across the circuit and, despite Tommy Rustad’s valiant attempt at forcing a way through the displaced tyre barrier, the race was red flagged.
Mechanics were allowed onto the grid to repair the cars for three minutes before the restart took place, in which time Solberg had a right-rear puncture changed. But, the triple FIA World champion then lost ground on the opening lap of the restarted race and dropped to fourth, before then retiring on lap two with mechanical problems.
Meanwhile, Kristoffersson led throughout to net pole position for the final, despite yet more drama when his Polo stopped after the finish line of the semi-final and had to be recovered to the paddock.
But, taking the lead from pole in the final, Kristoffersson fended off early pressure from EKS Audi teammates Andreas Bakkerud and Ekstrom in the opening laps before pulling an advantage to score his third win of the year.
Bakkerud had passed Ekstrom around the outside in Turns 1 and 2 to take second, the pair avoiding tripping over each other, unlike during the first corner of their semifinal at round two in Portugal.
Having dropped to third at Silverstone, Ekstrom then also lost out to a hard-charging Sebastien Loeb when the Frenchman dived up the inside of the Swede into the first corner on lap five, after the 2016 champion had taken his joker.
Loeb had taken his joker a lap earlier, having dropped as low as sixth before the first corner when he failed to get his 208 cleanly away from second on the grid.
Bakkerud and Kristoffersson took their jokers on lap five and six respectively and held their positions, while Loeb remained third to continue his 100 per cent podium record in 2018.
Ekstrom was fourth with Hyundai i20 campaigner Niclas Gronholm fifth, the Finn again producing a solid performance for his double WRC champion father Marcus’ GRX team. Kevin Hansen was slowed by a broken left-rear wheel in the closing stages and was sixth.
Hansen’s older brother Timmy was again out of luck in the series’ fourth round, despite being fastest in Q2 on Saturday afternoon. Like Kevin would later experience in the final, Timmy retired in the semis with a broken wheel.
Mark Higgins made an impressive World RX debut in Albatec Racing’s latest-specification Peugeot 208 and would have challenged for a position in the semi-finals but for retiring from his Q2 race when the rear suspension broke on landing from the circuit’s jump.
British Touring Car star Andrew Jordan had a difficult weekend on his return to World RX with MJP Racing’s brand new 2018-spec Ford Fiesta. Despite a number of niggling technical problems Jordan won his race in Q3 and challenged for the lead again in Q4 before the front suspension broke in Turn 2 and his weekend ended in retirement.