Current title holder Peter Solberg got off on the right track in Portugal as the opening round of the FIA World Rallycross Championship provided plenty of excitement for fans.
Second place went to Robin Larsson in his Audi A1 Supercar, whereas the Audi S1 EKS quattro of Topi Heikkinen rounded out the top three. Hoonigan Racing’s Ford Focus RS performed well for Andreas Bakkerud, who narrowly missed out on a podium spot, though his teammate Ken Block wasn’t as fortunate after struggling with a software glitch.
Sebastian Loeb, a nine-time WRC Champion, finished fifth in his Team Peugeot-Hansen 208 WRX Supercar, after being knocked out of podium contention due to a transmission issue.
“I’m really happy – my team have put in countless hours working on the car in the factory recently and this win is for them,” stated the event winner. “At the end of Q2, I was seventh – I’ve been in worse positions but we had a team meeting and we made some set-up changes.”
As for Larsson, the runner-up, he admitted that he didn’t expect to have such a result, saying that “reaching the semi-final was our goal, so to make the final was a bonus and to finish second is a dream. It has been a bit of a crazy day and to be truthful, the semi-final and the final are a blur but I know that I pushed really hard!”
Round two of the World Rallycross Championship will take place in Germany at Hockenheim in three weeks’ time, joining DTM for a double header.
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