Hockenheim WRX: Ekstrom retains lead as Loeb recovers
Mattias Ekstrom finished top in the Intermediate Classification at the second round of the World Rallycross Championship at Hockenheim.
Photo by: Alexander Trienitz
The Swede's second and seventh fastest times in Q3 and Q4 on Saturday evening, helped him cement his place at the top of the standings, having been best of the field on day one.
Ekstrom jumped into his Audi rallycross Supercar straight after racing in the first DTM race of the weekend, finishing ninth, made the best start in the last Q3 race, which had been restarted due to Timmy Hansen’s Peugeot 208 catching fire at the first attempt.
The Swede won his Q3 race and was victorious on track again in Q4, in a race in which Petter Solberg led on the opening lap only to stop with an engine problem, after hit by a closely following Sebastien Loeb.
Solberg had been fastest in Q3 and despite the non-finish in Q4 is seventh overall heading into the semi-finals tomorrow morning.
Amazingly, the Peugeot-Hansen team repaired Hansen’s 208 in time for Q4, the Swede winning the first race of the session ahead of his younger brother Kevin and finished third in the Intermediate Classification.
Second overall at the end of the qualifying stages is Johan Kristoffersson with Ekstrom’s EKS teammate Toomas Heikkinen third, the Finn fastest in Q4.
2015 European Rallycross Super1600 champion Janis Baumanis shone in his World RX Team Austria Ford Fiesta in only his second full-time event for the squad and is fifth at the end of day one.
The Latvian pushed Loeb and Ekstrom hard in the last race of the day. Loeb, himself, dominated his Q3 race on track to be third on the time sheets behind Solberg and Ekstrom.
The Frenchman led the final race of Q4 even after the contact with Solberg, but was passed by Ekstrom at the end of the first lap and improved to finish eighth overall at the Intermediate stage, behind Solberg.
OlsbergsMSE driver Kevin Eriksson had been sixth overnight but two rough races in traffic on Saturday dropped him to ninth overall, ahead of privateer Robin Larsson, who had a close battle with Ken Block in Q4.
In the same encounter, Davy Jeanney suffered from contact damage and a puncture, but still qualified sixth overall.
British driver Liam Doran made it into the semi-finals for the second event in a row in JRM’s Mini RX in 11th, with Andreas Bakkerud the last qualifier in 12th.
The Norwegian lost time in Q3 with mechanical gremlins but made it into the semi-finals with third fastest in Q4.
Bakkerud’s Hoonigan Racing Division team mate Ken Block is the first driver to miss out on a place in the semi-finals in 13th.
Kevin Hansen missed Q3 after crashing into a wall on the loose section of the circuit in the warm-up session and wasn’t able to qualify for the semi-finals, he is classified 19th overall at the Intermediate Stage.
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