Sébastien Loeb took his second win in the FIA World Rallycross Championship at Mettet in Belgium today after an action-packed race.
It was Team Peugeot Total team-mate, Timmy Hansen who was quickest in the morning Q3 session, and EKS Audi Sport’s Mattias Ekstrom who went quickest in Q4. The usual suspects lined up for the semi-finals, with Ekstrom joined on the front row by Johan Kristoffersson in semi-final one, and Peugeot locking out the front row with Loeb in the second.
Both races were chaotic, and Kristoffersson, even after contact with PSRX Volkswagen Team Sweden team-mate Petter Solberg, took the victory comfortably in the first. Andreas Bakkerud jump-started in the second semi-final which meant that he was forced to joker twice but still finished second. Timmy Hansen was pushed into the wall off the line, and fuelled by anger and adrenaline, drove the race of the day to claw his way back into third from last, but ultimately, it was Loeb who took the win.
Kristoffersson was on pole for the final, but it was Loeb who got the jump on him off the line in the Peugeot that has looked good with the getaway all weekend. Hansen fought his way up to second from the third row of the grid, and Solberg chose to joker early on. Kristoffersson jokered the following lap, whilst the Peugeot 1-2 chose to stay out.
The order remained the same for the next two laps until Loeb and Hansen jokered together on lap 4. Solberg, running in third, was able to exploit this, forcing his way between the two drivers to take second. Kristoffersson tried to push past Hansen, but ultimately had to settle for fourth.
Loeb came under pressure from Solberg but held on to take the chequered flag, with a double podium for the team with Hansen in third. The last time he won a World RX race was in Latvia in 2016, and he now sits in second in the drivers championship behind Kristoffersson.
