Topi Heikkinen tops the Qualifying order after Day One of the 2017 World RX of Spain in his EKSRX Audi Quattro S1 Supercar.
Mixed conditions at the Barcelona Grand Prix for round one of the 2017 FIA World Rallycross Championship meant that both Q1 and Q2 were affected with differing levels of grip for the drivers, especially in Q2 which saw torrential rain douse the circuit part way through the running order.
Mixed conditions in both Q1 and Q2 means that the established order has been affected a lot. Credit: IMG / FIA World RX
Heikkinen is happy with his start to the weekend but is aware that there is more work to do.
“We’re happy that we’re standing on the top. We had some bad luck in Q1 with the conditions but also it was bad luck for the other guys in Q2. We need to take it when we have the chance, but we still have some work to do,” said Heikkinen.
“We’re far away from the end of the weekend but I’d like to be on the podium and I will do everything to try and do that.”
MJP Racing Team Austria driver Timo Schieder is second overall in the 2017 World RX of Spain. Credit: IMG / FIA World RX
Behind Heikkinen in the overnight standings is MJP Racing Team Austria driver Timo Schieder, who finishes Q1 in 12th place before going 2nd fastest in Q2. PSRX Volkswagen Team Sweden‘s Johan Kristoffersson completes the top three, having gone quickest in Q1 himself.
The Peugeot-Hansen squad hold the next three positions with Kevin Hansen in fourth, Timmy Hansen in fifth place and Sebastien Loeb in seventh place overall. DA Racing’s Jean-Baptiste Dubourg currently sits in sixth place, splitting the newer 208 WRX’s with his older version.
STARD’s Janis Baumanis has had a good start to the 2017 World RX of Spain. Credit: IMG / FIA World RX
STARD’s Janis Baumanis has his Ford Fiesta RXS in eighth place ahead of Ken Block in the Hoonigan Racing Ford Focus RS RX. Block went second fastest in Q1 after winning his race and is looking to stay inside the top twelve for a place in the Semi-Finals.
EKSRX Drivers Reinis Nitiss and Mattias Ekstrom currently lie in tenth and eleventh place respectively whilst Petter Solberg completes the top 12 places for the all important Semi-Finals.
Andreas Bakkerud is one of several high profile drivers looking to fightback for a Semi-Final place. Credit: IMG / FIA World RX
The poor weather conditions caught out a lot of drivers with regular names such as Andreas Bakkerud, Timur Timerzyanov and Kevin Eriksson who are all outside the top twelve places.
The remaining drivers outside the top twelve include the likes of Hervé Knapick, Guy Wilks, Niclas Gronholm, Gregoire Demoustier who is making his World RX debut along with “Csucsu” in the Kia Rio and Guerlain Chicherit in his Mk3 Renault Clio.
