Construction Equipment Dealer Team enjoyed a strong start to their 2022 FIA World Rallycross Championship campaign, but both drivers admit that there is still work to be done.
The team were the only outfit to get all of their cars into the final of the season opening round at Lånkebanen in Hell, Norway, at the weekend (13/14 August).
The gender-equal pairing of Swede Klara Andersson and Finland’s Niclas Grönholm drove valiantly to ensure that the new PWR RX1e was competitive from the beginning of the weekend right until the checkered flag dropped. Andersson was particularly ebullient, having not only debuted the car, but also making her own debut on the WorldRX stage.
Reflecting on her performance, Andersson said: “It’s been a fantastic debut for me in the FIA World Rallycross Championship. It feels absolutely amazing to finish fourth behind such merited drivers as Johan Kristoffersson and Timmy Hansen,” who are the only two drivers on the grid to have world championships under their belts (four and one respectively).
”We have shown our potential and collected valuable experience. The team have really supported me all weekend and pushed me forward. There are still some tenths to find in both me and the car, and I look forward to continuing in Riga.”
Grönholm, who took the team’s first ever race win in his semi-final, was more pessimistic in his assessment of the weekend, potentially as he knows what it’s like to win races at the highest level.
“It was a difficult weekend in the beginning with some issues of setting up the car on Saturday, and some issues on Sunday morning. But in the semi-final, I got a clean run with a great start. In the final I couldn’t really do anything after the start,” Grönholm said.
Grönholm can take comfort from the fact that all teams have reported similar issues. Event winner Kristoffersson described the weekend as “disappointing,” and Hansen World RX Team reported that Hansen struggled in the final with not quite having the right feel of the car under him.
CE Dealer Team principal, Jussi Pinomäki, had nothing but positives to report from the weekend: “It’s been a solid start our journey in the FIA World Rallycross Championship. Every member of the team along with our partners has made a fantastic job. It was fantastic to see the PWR RX1e on the track for the first time, as both Niclas and Klara put in great efforts to get all the way to the final in our debut.”
Only time will tell if they are able to develop at the same speed as their more experienced rivals when the World RX circus arrives in Latvia in a few weeks time.
Rounds 2 and 3 of the World Rallycross Championship take place in the season’s first double header at the Ferratum World RX Of Latvia (03/04 September).
