EKSTROM WINS AGAIN TO TAKE WORLD RX CHAMPIONSHIP LEAD

May 16, 2016 by FIA World Rallycross Championship presented by Monster Energy

Mattias Ekstrom made it back-to-back victories yesterday (15 May) to move into the lead of The 2016 FIA World Rallycross Championship presented by Monster Energy for the first time, following a peerless performance at the Kapaza Rallycross of Belgium. The EKS driver defeated Team Peugeot-Hansen's Sebastien Loeb and defending two-time Champion Petter Solberg on a weekend of thrills and spills that brought the capacity 25,000-strong crowd to its feet.

Buoyed by his maiden success of the season at Hockenheim a week earlier, Ekstrom was once again right up at the sharp end from the outset in World RX of Belgium, where his tally of three maximum scores from the four qualifying sessions was unmatched by any of his rivals. The Audi S1 EKS RX quattro driver duly topped the intermediate classification and after winning his semi-final, looked to have proceedings under control in the all-important final.

'I think that was probably one of the best weeks of my rallycross career!' reflected the Swede, who is now five points clear of Petter Solberg at the top of the World RX drivers' standings. EKS RX also continue to lead the overall teams' standings.

Ekstrom added: 'People say we made it look easy, but when you consider that the lap times between the top drivers are all within the same tenth of a second, it's anything but easy! The season is very long and there are a lot of races still to go, so you can never take anything for granted and I've been in this sport long enough to know that things can change very fast. We need to remain focused and keep working hard – and that is exactly what we will do.'

The runner-up spoils marked Loeb's best finish in rallycross to date, and both the Frenchman and Solberg – who relinquished the World Championship lead for the first time in over a year – were constant thorns in Ekstrom's side throughout the weekend.

'The level of competition in this championship is incredibly high,' opined nine-time WRC Champion Loeb. 'There are really tight battles between a lot of drivers, meaning we have to push to the limit at all times and even the smallest of mistakes is heavily punished. It was hard work getting to the final, but I'm really happy to finish on the podium for the first time in World Rallycross and now the goal has to be to keep this positive momentum going.'

'The final was going pretty much to plan until I lost some time when Anton Marklund spun in front of me,' added Solberg. 'I tried to push as hard as I could to fight back, but that overheated the rear tyres a bit and I couldn't quite pip Seb at the end. I'm happy with the podium but Mattias was the fastest driver this weekend, so we have some work to do. We'll have to reach into our bag of tricks to see what we can pull out for the next round!'

Marklund wound up fourth following a meteoric getaway that propelled him from the back row of the starting grid to second by the exit of turn one, earning the Swede the Monster Energy Super Charge Award for his spectacular efforts. The Volkswagen RX Sweden driver saw his podium hopes disappear with a lap two spin, but recovered for a strong points haul with his best result of the season so far.

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In glorious spring sunshine, local hero Francois Duval gave the tens of thousands of trackside fans plenty to cheer about by making his way through to the final, although a late puncture restricted the Belgian to fifth at the chequered flag. After a starring turn in the semi-finals, meanwhile, technical woes hindered Volkswagen RX Sweden's Johan Kristofferson in the final who eventually finished sixth.

Seventh place went to Timmy Hansen, whose strong turn of speed was undone by a jump-start in the second semi-final that obliged him to take two passages through the Joker Lap and saw him miss out on progressing on to the final by just eight-tenths-of-a-second.

Former FIA European Rallycross Champion Timur Timerzyanov was another to fall victim to a semi-final false start, which ended a promising weekend for the Russian that had earlier yielded a qualifying race win.

His World RX Team Austria team-mate Janis Baumanis finished third in the first semi-final, but a black flag for opening lap contact meant he dropped from the final, his place handed to Duval. Nonetheless, the reigning Super1600 Champion enjoyed an excellent weekend that offered a ringing endorsement of the talent produced by World RX's feeder categories.

Kevin Eriksson rounded out the top ten for Olsbergs MSE, ahead of Peugeot-Hansen Academy's Davy Jeanney and Reinis Nitiss – another semi-final jump-start culprit behind the wheel of his ALL-INKL.COM Muennich Motorsport SEAT Ibiza.

Notable hard luck stories could be told by Ekstrom's EKS team-mate Topi Heikkinen, whose bid for a Belgian World RX hat-trick – after triumphing in both 2014 and 2015 – was scuppered by a series of mechanical misfortunes and Robin Larsson, who just missed out on the semi-finals following a collision in his last Qualifier. Hoonigan Racing Division duo Ken Block and Andreas Bakkerud endured a torrid weekend, with their Ford Focuses beset by electrical issues.

Belgium also marked the opening round of the highly-competitive FIA European Rallycross Championship for Supercars, where there are five rounds in total. Frenchman Jerome Grosset-Janin won all four qualifying sessions Q1-Q4 but it was Kevin Hansen who took the outright victory in his Peugeot-Hansen Academy prepared Peugeot 208 WRX Supercar. Grosset-Janin finished runner-up, while Norway's Tord Linnerud clinched third.

In the Euro RX TouringCar category, 17-year-old Magda Andersson from Sweden took the overall win in her Ford Fiesta and leads the standings after the first round. Norway's Fredrik Magnussen finished runner-up in another Ford Fiesta, while compatriot Ben-Philip Gunderson – also driving a Fiesta – took the third podium spot. The TouringCar category will rejoin World RX as a support category in Norway next month.

Round two of the RX Lites Cup was won by Thomas Bryntesson – the Norwegian triumphing for the second event in a row. Simon Olofsson and Joachim Hvaal finished second and third respectively. In the RX Lites driver standings after two rounds, Bryntesson leads Frenchman Cyril Raymond by ten points.

Paul Bellamy, World RX Managing Director for IMG, concluded: 'It's been tough for the teams having had two back-to-back events but congratulations to Mattias who has taken his second World RX win in a row. It was fantastic to see Sebastien claim his first World RX podium, and credit to Petter who has delivered two podiums from three events. Our final today saw five different marques on the grid – Audi, Volkswagen, Ford, Citroen, Peugeot – and once again demonstrates the huge amount of diversity within our Championship. We had over 25,000 fans at Mettet over the weekend and of course they loved watching their home favourite Francois Duval reach the final and fighting with our World RX regulars, which was an excellent achievement. We now have a two week break before the teams reconvene for World RX of Great Britain at Lydden Hill at the end of the month'