Johan Kristoffersson won a highly dramatic finale in Belgian Mettet, at the 4th round of the FIA World Rallycross Championship.
Kevin Hansen’s Sunday was quickly over, when he had a dramatic roll in Qualifying heat 3, where he lost the rear end of his car and clipped a tire barrier that flipped the car twice, before it was ending up on all 4 wheels again. The car was so damaged that he couldn’t continue, even though he was one of the fastest this weekend.
Mattias Ekström got a puncture in Q4, after a collision with Sebastien Loeb, which meant that he only finished 8th in the qualification ranks, and got a bad starting position in the semifinal.
Sebastien Loeb hit the tire barrier hard in turn 1, lap 1 in his semifinal, and when he continued, his engine decided to give up on lap 5 with a lot of smoke.
Mattias Ekström, Petter Solberg, and Ken Block went into turn 1 three-man-wide and Block managed to come out on top of that. Block, however, went off the road later in the semifinal though and retired.
Niclas Grönholm smashed through the tires put up to prevent drivers short cutting the corners in semifinal 2, and that cost him a place in the final.
Timmy Hansen, Johan Kristoffersson, and Kevin Eriksson were the ones to go through from semifinal 1, while Andreas Bakkerud, Mattias Ekström and Petter Solberg qualified to the final through semifinal 2.
Andreas Bakkerud was the driver with the best reaction in the finale, but Solberg were the first guy into turn 1. There was drama on lap 3, where Solberg and Timmy Hansen collided. Solberg went into a slight detour, and when he rejoined the track, he smacked into the side of Andreas Bakkerud, so Solberg’s countryman had to retire. There were a few hand signals exchanged, when Bakkerud left his car…
On the very final lap of an already exciting finale, Timmy Hansen got a puncture while he was leading. He still had to do the joker lap and that meant that Johan Kristoffersson could sneak past and win with less than a second. Timmy Hansen made it home in second, only 0,011 of a second ahead of Petter Solberg.
An extremely exciting Sunday in Mettet, compared to the first rounds this year, which hasn’t had as much dramatic as this Sunday alone could deliver.
Mattias Ekström continues to lead the World Championship, but now with only 3 points to Johan Kristoffersson. Petter Solberg is third, with Timmy Hansen leapfrogging Sebastien Loeb in the battle for 4th.
The next time the crazy FIA World Rallycross Championship drivers are back on track is in 14 days, where the series visits the legendary Lydden Hill for one last time, before they will race at Silverstone in the future.