O’DONOVAN PUTS HIS NAME IN THE RECORD BOOKS AS KRISTOFFERSSON TAKES DOUBLE
It had been 29 years since a British driver claimed back-to-back wins in an FIA rallycross series but that barren spell ended the Belgian round of the World Rallycross Championship at Spa-Francorchamps.
While Johan Kristoffersson claimed the spoils in World RX, Patrick O’Donovan delivered his second win in succession in the RX2e electric support category.
Not since early in the 1993 season, when Richard Hutton won the Portuguese and French rounds of Euro RXs then Division 1 support category had a British driver stood on the top step on the podium in consecutive races. While early-season form means O’Donovan’s hopes of claiming the single-make title remain an outside shot at best, the result, which backed up his win in the Latvian round of the championship last month, further stamped the 18-year-old’s name on the minds of those in the international rallycross scene and beyond.
Arguably guilty of being a little rash at times early in the campaign, O’Donovan’s success in Spa came thanks to measured drives throughout the qualifying stages. He secured pole position for the final while the other frontrunners ran into different issues throughout the encounter.
At the start of the final, O’Donovan made the best start and he was chased by series leader Viktor Vrankx, the Belgian taking his joker at the first opportunity and incredibly returning to the main track still second. Behind him, on the exit of Turn 1, Isak Sjokvist and Raul Ferre were put out of contention by a three-way clash from which Pablo Suarez came out of best and the latter ultimately finished the race in third.
Up front, though, with less than a second splitting O’Donovan and Vrankx throughout the race, it appeared that the Belgian 16-year-old had the win in the bag, with O’Donovan still to take his joker.
The British Rallycross Championship leader took his compulsory extra route on the fifth and final tour and delivered the alternative-route execution of the weekend to maintain track position by just 0.150s and secure a second-straight class triumph.
In World RX, series-leader Johan Kristoffersson won twice at Spa, but his Kristoffersson Motorsport Volkswagen
RX1e didn’t have the pace advantage it had enjoyed throughout the season so far.
Having topped the SuperPole session in round six on Saturday on Spa’s revised and now more gravelly rallycross track, Kristroffersson didn’t stop the clocks first throughout the remaining stages. However, having started fourth on the grid for the final, he climbed to second by the time the pack drove through Eau Rouge, which became the lead when concertina contact, instigated by Niclas Gronholm at the back of a four-car chain, forced leader Timmy Hansen into a spin and down to last.
Gronholm later received a penalty post-race that placed him fifth but, up front, Kristoffersson, who had been pushed into Hansen at Turn 2, ran clear out front to his fifth win from six in the series’new electric era.
Kevin Hansen drove to second, while Kristoffersson’s 19-year-old KMS stablemate, Gustav Bergstrom, in only his fourth World RX weekend, finished third.
Timmy Hansen quite rightly felt aggrieved, especially having been pushed off from the lead of the final in the previous round in Portugal, but worse was to come for the Swede on Sunday.
The 2019 drivers’champion set the pace in the opening heat in round seven, while Kristoffersson suffered a rightrear puncture that destroyed the bodywork on the rear of his Volkswagen. The four-time champion then won the first race of heat two and ended up fastest as all of the cars in the second race, including the winner Timmy Hansen, also suffered from punctures.
Timmy Hansen remained at the front of the order at the end of the ranking stage, then beat brother Kevin in their progression race. In the semi-finals, side-by-side contact with Gronholm in the opening corner ultimately caused broken suspension on Timmy Hansen’s Peugeot and, despite him closing on Gronholm’s team-mate Klara Andersson at the end of the race, he finished fourth and didn’t make the final.
Meanwhile Kristoffersson won the second semi-final and started on pole for the final, from where he made a good start, led from the front and drove to a controlled 33rd career win.
Bergstrom overtook Gronholm for second during the race but after the joker laps played out would end up third behind the Finn, Gronholm claiming his second podium of the season. Bergstrom doubled-up on his dream result from the previous day to complete the rostrum.
Kevin Hansen had a spin and finished fourth, while Ole Christian Veiby endured a torrid weekend marred by technical issues and retired from the final on Sunday at Turn 2 with broken steering.
Klara Andersson was unable to repeat her maiden podium from the previous weekend in Portugal. She initially won the first semi-final in round six but having closed the door on the pack after a brilliant launch, a move that eliminated both Rene Munnich and Bergstrom, she was disqualified from the race by the FIA stewards in order to switch positions with Bergstrom who then progressed to the final instead of Andersson.