This weekend sees the fourth double header of the 2020 FIA World Rallycross Championship take place with rounds seven and eight taking place at Circuit de Catalunya in Spain.
This unprecedented season continues after rounds in Sweden, Finland and Latvia so far this year and its double champion Johann Kristoffersson who again leads the Drivers Standings, 17 points ahead of Mattias Ekström with four rounds left in 2020.
2016 World RX winner Ekström – driving the KYB Team JC Audi S1 – has proven regularly he appears to be Kristoffersson’s main rival for the title in this shortened season.
Incredibly, the championship leader has won three of the six events so far this year, proving he is certainly the man to beat. With Ekström taking two of the other three wins, the only other winner this year has been Finnish driver Niclas Gronholm. The GRX Taneco man is third in the championship, but a huge 49 points behind Kristoffersson going to Spain this weekend.
Last time out at Riga, the Volkswagen Polo driver won round five on day one, before series returnee Ekström took his second win of the season on the second day of action.
Someone who will be looking to build on his performance in round six is Ekström’s teammate Robin Larsson. The defending Euro RX champion has had a tough season in the world championship in 2020, but in round six he finished on the podium for the first time this year.
A pair of drivers who would have been hoping for more results this season are the Hansen brothers. Defending world champion Timmy is still in the championship hunt, but will need a strong pair of results this weekend if he is to keep his dreams of back-to-back titles alive.
Him and brother Kevin do have a great record in Spain however – last season they took a memorable one-two victory – and should be fighting at the front of the field in the pair of Team Hansen Peugeot 208s.
GCK has had somewhat of a disastrous build up to the event this weekend. Although its pair of Renault Meganes for Liam Doran and Andreas Bakkerud appear to finally going in the right direction as part of the Monster Energy GCK RX Cartel team, the squad’s pair of Clios have been withdrawn ahead of the double header after finding ‘significant issues’ after last time out in Latvia.
GCK Bilstein do compete, although have struggled with technical issues throughout the season so far. Currently, the leading driver for the team is Anton Marklund, but is down in 10th in the championship standings.
ALL-INKL.COM Muennich Motorsport and in particular Timo Scheider have shown potential so far this season. The former DTM driver has had his best start to a World RX season to date and this weekend is joined by Mandie August.
August is set to become only the second ever female to compete in World RX and takes the place of Rene Muennich for the rounds this weekend.
Several wildcards also take part in Barcelona alongside the regular field. These include GT convert Enzo Ide, who competes in a privately entered Audi S1 in World RX for the first time this year, while British driver Oliver Bennett makes his first appearance of the year in his XITE Energy backed Mini S1.
Tamas Karai, who competed in the championship in Finland, returns this weekend, with Patrick Guillerme completing the entry list in a Hyundai i20.
The FIA World RX of Catalunya takes place this weekend, with live streaming available from the event on the World RX Facebook and YouTube pages.
