KRIS T OFFERS SON FINISHES IN THE FINEST STYLE
Hal ridge watched the champion bag yet another victory
Emotions ran high after the conclusion of the World Rallycross Championship season finale at the series’ most southerly round in South Africa. None more so than for Johan Kristoffersson, who having netted a staggering 11th win from 12 rounds, finally let the feelings of becoming a two-time FIA world champion loose.
Kristoffersson’s weekend had got off to a difficult start. First the Volkswagen-backed PSRX team’s sea freight was delayed leaving Europe and was then held up further still entering Cape Town’s port due to high winds.
The consignment finally arrived on Friday afternoon and, although the squad missed the Friday pre-event shakedown, it was ready for action in Free Practice on Saturday morning. But, it was later that afternoon where Kristoffersson’s hopes of adding to his win tally appeared to be unravelling as he ran in traffic in his Q1 race then spun on the second lap and was thereafter slowed with a technical issue. He ended up 16th.
Meanwhile, Peugeot man Sebastien Loeb drove to the best time, a position that was almost taken by his teammate Timmy Hansen but for a joker-lap mistake by the Swede in the last race of the session.
In Q2, starting in the first race, Kristoffersson immediately took the lead and drove in clear air throughout to set a time that wouldn’t be beaten, even by team-mate Petter Solberg who won the final race of the day to end up second fastest.
Loeb held the overnight lead and maintained the position post-q3 despite Kristoffersson beating the Frenchman to another best time on Sunday morning.
Overnight maths had suggested that even if Loeb finished second twice, a pair of fastest times would lift Kristoffersson to the top of qualifying, which he duly executed to sit level on intermediate points with Loeb but ahead on countback.
Starting from pole position in semifinal one, Kristoffersson ran the tight inside line at the first corner and successfully defended a bold outside move from Hansen. The Swede then got embroiled in a battle for the next two corners with Audi driver Andreas Bakkerud. Hansen took the place and was followed by younger brother Kevin in an older-specification 208 Supercar. Bakkerud pressured the rear of Hansen Jr’s 208 and, on the third tour, he attempted an outside move into Turn 4. A slight touch on Hansen’s leftrear broke the front-right steering arm on Bakkerud’s S1, putting him out of the event and the fight to be runner-up in the drivers’ standings.
Both Hansens followed Kristoffersson into the final, but for Gronholm RX’S Timur Timerzyanov, a solid weekend couldn’t put him through to the last race of the season. His team-mate Niclas Gronholm, however, didn’t make the semis cut for the first time in 2018. In the second knock-out race, Solberg slammed the door on Loeb at the first corner from the outside of the front row and took a lead he wouldn’t relinquish to join Kristoffersson on the front row for the main event.
Loeb and Mattias Ekstrom battled over second, Loeb taking an earlier joker to secure the position when the extra-route strategies played out to accompany the Hansen brothers in the final for Peugeot and making the first two rows of the grid look more like an entry list. Having got both of its Prodrive-built Renault Meganes, driven by Guerlain Chicherit and Anton Marklund, through to the semis, both GCK drivers suffered issues in the latter stages of the event and didn’t make the final.
As the lights went green in the last race of the year in the shadow of Table Mountain, Solberg and Kristoffersson made near identical launches away from the line but, on the outside, Solberg was left with little option but to send his Polo sideways in a bid to take the lead around the outside of the long first right-hander. The move didn’t pay off, and the Norwegian then came under pressure for second in the run over the circuit’s jump and into Turn 4 from Ekstrom, who had overcome all three Peugeots in the first-corner contest.
Ekstrom’s dive up the inside into the right-left chicane at the fourth corner sent Solberg over the grass, as Ekstrom ran wide at Turn 5, allowing Timmy Hansen through before immediately taking his joker, followed by colleague Loeb.
Loeb then moved from sixth to third on the second tour as first Solberg spun on the exit of Turn 2 and was collected by Timmy Hansen, ending the pair’s races. Kevin Hansen then took his joker to leave Loeb in pursuit of Ekstrom and Kristoffersson. Ekstrom took his joker on lap three and returned to the main circuit ahead of Loeb, while Kristoffersson responded by taking his joker on the fourth tour and maintained his lead to secure another win.
Ekstrom finished second on his EKS team’s last World RX event with official Audi support, while Loeb and Kevin Hansen concluded Peugeot’s tenure as a World RX team with third and fourth.
While Kristoffersson was clearly emotional from greeting the PSRX team in parc ferme, and again later in the paddock, Ekstrom also had wet eyes as he announced in the post event press conference that he would end his fulltime World RX driving career having secured his 22nd podium and with it second in the points ( see Sporting Scene lead, page 29) for the second year in a row. British driver Oliver Bennett endured a difficult event due to technical issues with his Mini Cooper Supercar.