Team Peugeot-Hansen driver Davy Jeanney leads Day One of the fifth round of the 2015 FIA World Rallycross Championship at the Estering in Germany after taking a perfect score in his Peugeot 208 WRX Supercar by winning both heats so far.
The Frenchman set the fastest time in his heat one race and then he went even faster to break his heat one time and to take the heat two win.
“I’m very happy to be fastest in both heats today and I’m feeling more confident in the car,” declared Jeanney, who finished runner-up in European Rallycross in 2013. “I had a very good start in the first heat and then lap after lap, my times kept improving. The second heat was a big race with the likes of Timmy Hansen and Johan Kristoffersson beside me but I had another good start and the car was perfect.”
Ford Olsbergs MSE driver Renis Nitiss sits in second place overall after securing third place in his Fiesta Supercar overall in heats one and two.
Volkswagen Team Sweden‘s Tord Linnerud sits in third place overall after a roll on Free Practice damaged his VW Polo Supercar. However the squad repaired the car with Linnerud taking sixth place in heat one and second place in heat two.
“I braked too late which meant I had to take a different line on the circuit where the grip wasn’t so good. I hit the sand and rolled the car onto its roof. The team repaired the car before the first heat and I was sixth. I didn’t have the best start for the second heat but there was a lot of action at the first corner and I managed to come out ahead. I didn’t take too many risks after that but tomorrow I can push a bit harder and maybe I can be faster.”
2014 Estering victor Petter Solberg finds himself in fourth place in the overnight standings. The Norwegian, who took a perfect 100 points score at Lydden Hill last month, finished in tenth place in heat one and then improved to finish in fourth place in heat two at a circuit where the competition seems to have closed on the 2014 WorldRX Champion. Completing the top five is Andreas Bakkerud, who guided his Ford Olsbergs MSE Fiesta to fourth place in heat one before moving on to finish in eleventh place in heat two.
In the FIA European Rallycross Championship, the heats have been combined with the WorldRX drivers and the fastest EuroRX driver at the end of Day One is HTB Racing‘s Tommy Rustad in his Marklund Motorsport-prepared Volkswagen Polo Super after finishing seventh fastest, but fastest of the EuroRX contingent in heat one and he followed that up by going fifth quickest overall in heat two. Second place in the EuroRX standings is held by Jean-Baptiste Dubourg in his Citroen C4 Supercar. The Frenchman secured the position by being 14th quickest overall in heat one and then improving to seventh quickest in heat two.
Frode Holte lies in third place overnight in his Hyundai I20 after being in 15th place in heat one before improving in heat two to 8th place, right behind Dubourg. Volkswagen Team Sweden’s EuroRX driver Ole-Christian Veiby sits in fourth place overnight, ahead of Albatec Racing‘s Mettet victor Jerome Grosset-Janin. Brit James Grint lies in 11th place overnight, sandwiched between Mark Flaherty in his Mk2 Ford Focus in 10th place and Ollie O’Donovan, who lies in the crucial 12th place in his Ford Fiesta.
Two high profile names prop up the WorldRX Intermediate table however. EKSRX Team Principal Mattias Ekstrom lies in 17th place overall with two poor heats whilst Marklund Motorsport’s Mettet WorldRX winner Topi Heikkinen lies in 16th place, just above the Audi S1 driver.
Ekstrom explained his poor performance for the events first day.
“A lot of things went wrong today, it’s not been good. Firstly, we had some problems during free practice and changed the engine before the heats. In heat one I had a broken throttle cable and had to retire, then in the next heat we had a sensor problem. It’s been an unlucky day, for sure, but we will come back tomorrow and see what we can do.”
