The GRX Taneco local hero Niclas Grönholm shocked the FIA World Rallycross Championship grid with his brilliant performance in Sunday’s round four of the championship.
Grönholm had been struggling to get back to his 2019 pace with the Hyundai i20 in Sweden, but as they headed for Finland he started to show promising results.
Grönholm missed out a podium finish on the Saturday’s round three of the 2020 season as his main rival Timmy Hansen defended his position hard at the last corner, but the following day Grönholm got his redemption in the final, having to fight hard for it by trying to close the door on both Mattias Ekström and Johan Kristoffersson who were trying hard to get past the Finn.
As Grönholm went into the jokerlap, all were thinking he will not make it out in first place but Grönholm proved everyone wrong by setting an astonishing quick jokerlap time and came out in front of Ekström and went on to claim the win on home soil.
“We had a bit of up-and-down day with weather making its marks in results in the Qualifying sessions. I managed to win the Q2, and that helped me to take the front row for the Semi Final,” Grönholm said.
“We found a bit more speed today. Maybe a little in the car, but mainly in myself – I kept calm the whole day, and that was crucial for winning this event. Final was a bit stressful, because Ekström and Kristofferson were on my tail, but I kept my racing line as knew that they won’t overtake me on the outside, because it was so slippery there.”
He added: “This is a very important result for our team. Everyone has been working flat-out for the past week and this win means a lot for the whole team. And for sure, it is a bit more special to win at home, as so many people are following the race on TV.”
