BAKKERUD CLIMBS BACK TO THE VERY TOP IN WORLD RALLYCROSS ATTACK
Audi man reminds the fans of his ability with a controlled performance at Trois-rivieres.
It has been three long years since Andreas Bakkerud won a round of the World Rallycross Championship, but that is now firmly in his rear-view mirror.
At the Argentina season-finale in 2016, Bakkerud was on the crest of a wave. He’d just scored the Fordbacked Hoonigan team’s third win in its maiden campaign and was on the verge of a long-term deal with the squad.
Less than 12 months later, the plug had been pulled on the Ken Block-run programme and Bakkerud switched to EKS Audi for 2018. Despite having manufacturer support, he was unable to beat the might of Johan Kristoffersson and Volkswagen Motorsport’s Polo, before Audi also withdrew from its rallycross campaign the same season.
After an uncertain winter for one of the most popular drivers in rallycross, Bakkerud formed a last-minute deal to race a 2018 Audi alongside former team-mate Liam Doran in the newly created Monster Energy RX Cartel team, but his early-season hopes were dashed by an event-ending accident at the first around in Abu Dhabi.
Since then, although having obvious pace and chances to win events, at the majority of events Bakkerud’s Eksbuilt Audi S1 hasn’t had the outright pace of the Hansen Peugeots or
GRX Hyundais.
And, on paper, the Wrc-derived Hyundai i20s of the GRX squad should have been the cars to beat in Canada as the circuit’s long straight plays to their Pipo engine’s advantage, and the loose surface sections playing into the hands of their pliable chassis.
When free of traffic and drama, Niclas Gronholm and three-time European Rallycross champion
Timur Timerzyanov topped the order.
It was, however, Bakkerud who beat Doran for an RX Cartel 1-2 in Q1, before Gronholm was fastest in Q2, Timerzyanov topped Q3 and Gronholm won a chaotic Q4 to secure top qualifier position.
Despite missing two rounds of the season through illness, a maximum points haul would have dragged Gronholm into title contention, but a slow start from pole in semi-final one was followed by a poor joker strategy and he didn’t make the final.
Bakkerud won semi-final two and was joined by Timerzyanov, who drove through semi-final two with bent left-rear suspension to victory, on the front row.
At the start of the final, Timerzyanov made the best launch but Bakkerud’s aero-strong Audi outdragged the Russian into the first corner. Timerzyanov was hung wide while Janis Baumanis cut inside to move up to second.
Timerzyanov dived into the joker lap at the first opportunity, followed by Anton Marklund, as Kevin Hansen, who started sixth, moved into third.
Timerzyanov then made a mistake in the final corners of the lap and spun into the tyres, handing track position to Marklund, but the Swede’s race would end on the third tour. At the exit of the joker lap, compatriot Hansen forced Marklund’s Renault Megane wide and into a concrete wall.
Up front, Baumanis jokered from second on lap four as, on the main lap, Hansen spun with a broken drivetrain. That handed third to Timerzyanov. The Hyundai man then held on to the podium place to the finish. Hansen was also passed by Marklund’s teammate Guerlain Chicherit and he went on to finish fourth. Hansen was disqualified from the final post-race for the contact with Marklund, meaning his points lead was slashed to just five points, now ahead of winner Bakkerud and not his brother.
Timmy Hansen didn’t make the semi-finals for the second time in the campaign. An uncharacteristic mistake in Q2 at Trois-rivieres, when the Swede dropped his Peugeot 208 WRX into the tyre wall on the exit of Turn 2, was compounded when he was in a first-corner melee with Bakkerud and Timerzyanov in Q4.
Doran, meanwhile, should have led at the end of the first day. The British driver was just pipped by Bakkerud in Q1, then lost the lead of his Q2 race at the start to Marklund, but pulled off an audacious outside move through Turn 4 to take the lead. But his Audi S1 lost gears and he was left to crawl to the finish. While fighting for a front-row start in the semis, Doran clipped the same wall in the Q4 race that ended Timmy Hansen’s weekend and the
Brit picked up a left-rear puncture.
That caused the spin that Hansen became involved with. Doran had a further half-spin the semis and didn’t finish after contact.