World of Sport: World Rallycross; NASCAR Cup; Indycar
WORLD RALLYCROSS HELL (N) JUNE 9-10 ROUND 5/12
Domination by Johan Kristoffersson isn’t unusual, but for a driver to win every single competitive session in a World Rallycross round is almost unheard of. In the 53 events since the series began in 2014, the feat had only been achieved once – before the trip to Norway last weekend.
Points leader Kristoffersson had been given increased confidence in his PSRX Volkswagen Motorsport-built Polo Supercar during a pre-event test ahead of the visit to Hell, where the Swede executed a crushing performance to win his fourth race from five in 2018 by leading throughout.
As Kristoffersson stormed to another victory, fellow Swede Mattias Ekstrom had to work hard to fight back from qualifying 10th. A pair of good starts in the semi-final and final lifted the former DTM star’s Audi into second on both occasions, and he scored his first podium of the season.
Kristoffersson’s team-mate Petter Solberg moved to second at the first corner of the final from the third row, but dropped behind Ekstrom when he took his joker lap on lap five. Kevin Hansen equalled his personalbest finish in fourth, as older brother and fellow Peugeot racer Timmy Hansen plus Ekstrom’s team-mate Andreas Bakkerud dropped out on contention after contact in the run to Turn 1. Sebastien Loeb was missing from the podium for the first time this season – he was fourth in semi-final two after forgetting to take his joker in Q3.