Johan Kristoffersson continues to be unbeaten in the new RX1e category of the FIA World Rallycross Championship, having taken a superb twenty-ninth career victory on the first day of the Ferratum World RX of Riga-Latvia at the Biķernieki circuit.
Kevin Hansen lined up on pole for the final alongside Kristoffersson and Timmy Hansen, and, despite not being fastest off the line, managed to barge his way past the four-time world champion into the first complex of corners. Kristoffersson, having spent two laps all over the back of the race leader, dived into the joker to complete the longer lap, coming out behind Timmy. Kevin gave it absolutely everything on lap three, threw his car into the joker, but the almighty Kristoffersson demonstrated the astonishing power of his Volkswagen Polo RX1e and managed to come out in front of Hansen. From there, he hunted down Timmy, who slotted his Peugeot 208 RX1e into third place at the final joker merge behind his brother. Both Hansen World RX Team cars are on the podium, but at the moment, Kristoffersson looks unbeatable.
Speaking after the race, Kristoffersson said “it’s been a tough day. Since winning Super Pole it’s been a fight back, so [it’s] really, really nice to be able to pull this one off…I had one lap to pull off a really good lap behind Kevin…I had tyres when it matters on the joker lap,” having had to save tyres on this very abrasive track.
A changeable day in Latvia saw the drivers battling through the elements at various stages throughout the day. Kristoffersson demonstrated his mastery of the sport right from the beginning, ensuring that his Polo entered the first corner of the first race in first position, a place which he did not relinquish for the rest of the race. His teammate, Ole Christian Veiby, followed him home in second with the two Construction Equipment Dealer Team PWR RX1e cars coming home third and fourth.
In their first heat of the day, the two Hansen brothers were absolutely equal heading into turn one, with Timmy holding the outside line to give him the better drive out of turn two, giving him the lead as they charged down to the next sequence of turns. A very fair and clean drive from both of them, they followed each other around for the rest of the race, even sharing a joker strategy, a demonstration of precision racing from the two Hansen World RX Team drivers, which they would repeat in their progression race, taking another 1-2.
The big story from heat 2 was the very last corner. Grönholm emerged in front of Timmy Hansen and Kristoffersson but was slower as they accelerated out of the corner. Timmy seemed to misjudge the gap or simply get frustrated – he rammed his Peugeot into the PWR, causing smoke to billow out of Grönholm’s car as they crossed the line. Clearly, the damage wasn’t too severe, as he managed to finish second his progression race, albeit 2.6 seconds behind Kristoffersson, who, to the surprise of absolutely no one, took a commanding win.
Kristoffersson didn’t have it all his own way, however. Gustav Bergström, his 16-year-old teammate, beat him off the line in semi-final 2, with Timmy Hansen muscling his way into second position. However, what Kristoffersson always manages to do is demonstrate why his is the four-time world champion. He pushed as hard as he could for the rest of the race, helped along the way by his teammate unintentionally slowing Hansen, and ultimately took the race win.
Kevin Hansen and Kristoffersson were the two drivers to beat today. Hansen has recovered well from a disappointing outing in the first round of the championship two weeks ago in Hell, winning his semi-final, starting the final on pole, and challenging Kristoffersson all the way to the line in the final. But ultimately, no one had any answer to the four-time champion.
Round three of the championship takes place tomorrow. Can anyone be an immovable object to counter the unstoppable force that is Johan Kristoffersson?
