As chaos unfolded in front of him, Timmy Hansen drove through to take his third win of the 2019 FIA World Rallycross championship.
Lining up for the final were Andreas Bakkerud, Niclas Gronholm, Timmy Hansen, Rokas Baciuska, Anton Marklund and Kevin Hansen. Before the race got underway, a minutes silence was held in honour of Anthoine Hubert who tragically lost his life at Spa on Saturday. A packed Loheac fell silent in honour of the Frenchman. A poignant moment.
The silence was quickly broken by the sound of six WRX cars lining up for the final. Coming into the final, it came to light that Bakkerud had taken the lead in the championship standings ahead of Kevin Hansen. Bakkerud was fired up.
The lights went out and it was Gronholm who got the best launch off the line, edging ahead of Bakkerud into turn 1. Neither gave an inch as they turned in and the pair made contact, allowing Timmy Hansen to go up the inside of both of them to take the lead. Baciuska pulled off another incredible joker to come out in front of Gronholm at the merge, but was crucially caught behind Kevin Hansen. This hindered his chances of going for the win.
On lap four, Marklund jokered and managed to come out in front of Baciuska for second. Timmy Hansen took his joker on lap five, coming out clear in front of the chasing pack. The crucial joker for his brother came on the last lap. It was super tight at the merge with Hansen just managing to come out in front of Baciuska to recover a podium from what was a miserable weekend for him.
Nobody could trouble Timmy Hansen however and he held on to take his third win of this season’s championship with Anton Marklund in second and Kevin Hansen in third.
With only two rounds remaining, the championship battle has reached it’s boiling point. Bakkerud leads the championship for the first time this season on 160 points, with Timmy and Kevin tied on points in second and third on 158 apiece. It’s anyone’s guess as to who will win the 2019 FIA World Rallycross championship.
The next round gets underway in a fortnight’s time at the Bikernieki circuit in Latvia. You can catch all the action on the official FIA World RX YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/user/RallycrossRXTV
