It was Sweden’s Johan Kristoffersson who took victory at the Bretagne World RX of France in Round 8 of the FIA World Rallycross Championship. Andreas Bakkerud of Hoonigan Racing took second and Peugeot-Hansen’s Sebastien Loeb finished off the podium places.
One driver missing from the final was Mattias Ekstrom who had been leading the Intermediate Classification. He suffered a puncture in the first semi final and did not progress.
It was double champion Petter Solberg who was to benefit from Ekstrom’s misfortune, even though he missed out on the podium. Solberg goes to the World RX of Barcelona with a five point lead.
Kristoffersson is the fifth different winner this season but things did not start off too well for him.
“We couldn’t get it right yesterday. I was P10 after Q2 and the car didn’t fell right. My team worked really hard on the car overnight and in the rain this morning, the car felt amazing. This car and my driving style work very well together in the wet conditions.
Second place Bakkerud was happy with the weekend at Loheac.
“It was great to have both myself and Ken [Block] in the final for Hoonigan Racing Division. I feel like we are making progress each round. I’ve had four podium finishes in the last four rounds so I must be doing something right.”
Next up is the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya.
Asphalt: 60.4%
Length: 1.133km
2015 Result:
1st – Petter Solberg (Citroen DS3) – 4:51.051
2nd – Johan Kristoffersson (Volkswagen Polo) – 4:53.724
3rd – Timmy Hansen (Peugeot 208) – 4:53.909
Fastest Lap – Johan Kristoffersson – 45.212
DRIVERS CHAMPIONSHIP
1st – Petter Solberg – 181
2nd – Mattias Ekstrom – 176
3rd – Johan Kristoffersson – 158
4th – Andreas Bakkerud – 157
5th – Sebastien Loeb – 141
6th – Timmy Hansen – 117
7th – Toomas Heikkinen – 101
8th – Robin Larsson – 71
9th – Timur Timerzyanov – 67
10th – Davy Jeanney – 60
11th – Anton Marklund – 59
12th – Janis Baumanis – 59
13th – Kevin Eriksson – 57
14th – Ken Block – 53
15th – Reinis Nitiss – 35
16th – Kevin Hansen – 30
17th – Niclas Gronholm – 26
18th – Liam Doran – 23
19th – Francois Duval – 18
20th – Andy Scott – 6
21st – Tommy Rustad – 4
22nd – Rene Munnich – 4
23rd – Jean-Baptiste Dubourg – 1
TEAM CHAMPIONSHIP
1st – EKS RX (Ekstrom/Heikkinen) – 256
2nd – Team Peugeot-Hansen (Loeb/T.Hansen) – 226
3rd – Volkswagen RX Sweden (Kristoffersson/Marklund) – 188
4th – Hoonigan Racing Division (Bakkerud/Block) – 167
5th – World RX Team Austria (Baumanis/Timerzyanov) – 126
6th – Olsbergs MSE (Gronholm/Eriksson) – 80
7th – all-Inkl.com Munnich Motorsport (Nitiss/Munnich) – 26
*one car teams (such as Solberg and Larsson) are not eligible for team championship points and Reinis Nitiss has announced that he will leave Munnich Motorsport after France and will return to Olsbergs MSE for Barcelona.
Neil Simmons
Twitter: @world_racing
Photo Credits: FIA World Rallycross (c)