Second double final for Volkswagen RX Sweden at home World RX event
Round six of the 2016 FIA World Rallycross Championship saw the second double final of the season for home team Volkswagen RX Sweden, with Polo RX drivers Johan Kristoffersson and Anton Marklund finishing the event in fifth and fourth places respectively.
The 1.21km Holjes Motorstadion circuit played host to the FIA World Rallycross Championship circus from 1-3 July and Marklund set the fastest lap on day one’s wet conditions. The young Swede fought his way through the traffic-filled qualification races and made it into the semi-finals. A third-place finish in the second semi-final saw him join Kristoffersson in the Supercar final.
In the final race, Sebastien Loeb’s Peugeot was put under pressure by Marklund’s Polo on the opening lap and the Swede passed the Frenchman at the start of the second lap. Disappointingly, a technical issue slowed the 600bhp Polo down towards the end of the race, and resulted in a fourth-place finish.
‘Fastest lap time’
Marklund was content with his run, though: ‘The pace has been really good, we really showed that we have found a lot of speed, especially from testing. I had the fastest lap time for the whole of Saturday – that really showed what we could do.
‘Holjes is a tough track, it’s easy to damage the car and to get in trouble, so I played it safe to get to the semis. You know at Holjes if you are on the back row of the semis that you have to be quite aggressive, I was into turn one and I made it into the final,’ he continued.
‘I knew I had to do that again in the final. I was third position after turn two and I was faster than Loeb on the first lap and was able to pass him. When I jokered, I came out right in front of Mattias Ekstrom, but then I started to have some troubles with the car. It will be fixed easily and we will be ready for Canada, where I have always been in the final,’ he concluded.
Top of the pack
Kristoffersson meanwhile finished top of the pack after the first day’s second qualifying session and remained there at the Intermediate Classification after the fourth qualifying heat. He secured 16 championship points as well as a front row start for the first semi-final, from where he made it onto the second row for the final itself.
A great start saw Kristoffersson joker straight away and the driver from Arvika seemed to be heading for a podium place. Sadly, a puncture on the front of his Polo with just two laps remaining put paid to any podium hopes, and dropped the 27 year-old down to fifth.
Like Marklund, Kristoffersson was pleased with the pace of the Volkswagen Polo RX Sweden Polo: ‘We came here with some new updates and we proved all through the event that we have been quick in wet, dry and tricky conditions. I have to say that we really had the pace this weekend again, like we did in the first four events of the season.
‘We’ve found a lot of speed since Norway, which is great. It’s boring that we got the puncture in the final, as I was in a very good position to get a podium. We lost a bit on lap one but we caught it back and on lap four I was right on Andreas Bakkerud’s bumper, but I landed from the jump at turn two and got a puncture. That’s life.’
Kristoffersson currently sits fourth in the Drivers’ Championship, while Volkswagen RX Sweden is third in the manufacturers’ points. The seventh round of the 2016 FIA World Rallycross Championship takes place at Trois-Rivieres in Canada on 6-7 August.
2016 FIA WORLD RALLYCROSS CHAMPIONSHIP,
DRIVERS’ CHAMPIONSHIP POINTS
1 Mattias Ekström, Audi S1: 142
2 Petter Solberg, Citroën DS3: 137
3 Andreas Bakkerud, Ford Focus RS: 110
4 Sébastien Loeb, Peugeot 208: 106
5 Johan Kristoffersson, Volkswagen Polo: 106
2016 FIA WORLD RALLYCROSS CHAMPIONSHIP,
TEAMS’ CHAMPIONSHIP POINTS
1 EKS: 224
2 Team Peugeot Hansen: 192
3 Volkswagen RX Sweden: 152
4 Hoonigan Racing Division: 133
5 World RX Team Austria: 109
[Images: FIAWorldRallycross.com / Volkswagen RX Sweden]
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