RallycrossRX Germany: Solberg dominates day one

Petter Solberg sits on top of the order after the first two heats of the final round of the FIA European Rallycross Championship held at the Estering, Germany.

The 2003 World Rally Champion drove a clean race in heat one to set fastest time seemingly with ease. Heat two wasn’t quite so straight forward, last heading into the first corner Solberg found a gap on the inside to grab the lead and never look back.

“It’s going ok today, but the car almost stalled on the start line of heat two so the guys are looking at that now to see what the problem was. The track here is good fun, no problem at all,” said Solberg.

RallycrossRX championship leader Timer Timerzyanov is second overnight, he won his race in heat one and was beaten by Solberg in his heat two race. With the championship in mind, all Timerzyanov needs to do to claim the crown for the second year running is to finish in the top eight at the Intermediate Classification. Timerzyanov’s championship ambition has had a good day in Germany; Timmy Hansen had a slow start to heat one but fought back in heat two with second fastest time to be sixth overnight. If Hansen’s day wasn’t great, the other contender man in the championship hunt Davy Jeanney had an awful one, the French driver forgetting to take his joker in heat one. Fifth time in heat two puts him 13^th overnight in an event that both he and Hansen realistically need to score maximum points in to have any hope of the title.

Skoda man Peter Hedstrom has had his best first day of the season on a track he enjoys, the Swede is third after two heats ahead of Liam Doran and winner of the previous round in Austria; Alexander Hvaal. Stig-Olov Walfridson historically goes well on this circuit and is seventh just ahead of Frode Holte who was happy with just bedding himself back into top flight rallycross last weekend in Austria but is pushing to be in the final here in Germany. Anton Marklund survived first corner contact in heat one to set fourth fastest time but contact with a barrier in heat two eventually broke his steering, he is down in 14th just ahead of Andy Scott and Andreas Bakkerud, the latter spinning at the first corner in heat two and stalling the car, ruining his time.

Having claimed the Super1600 title last weekend nothing seems able to stop Reinis Nitiss setting fastest times. Quickest in both of the first two heats he heads Ulrik Linnemann at the top of the order. Third overall Sergey Zagumennov put in an impressive performance in his heat two race against Nitiss and Linnemann and will certainly be a force to be reckoned with in 2014. Eric Faren proved how unpredictable the first corner at the Estering is, in heat two the Swede entered the corner last and came out in the lead as the pack battled for position, he went on to win his race and set third time to lie fifth overall. Local man Andreas Steffen is eighth overall, fellow German Clemens Meyer makes his return to the sport this weekend and having spent a day reacquainted himself with his Skoda Fabia will be hoping to improve on his position of eleventh tomorrow.

On the back of his announcement that he will probably move to Supercar next year, Robin Larsson went fastest in both of the first TouringCar heats in Germany. Norwegian driver Anders Braten has dipped in and out of the championship this season, he is having his best run to date in second, ahead of Koen Pauwels and champion Derek Tohill. Winner of round four in Finland Roman Castoral had a torrid day, twice turned around in the first corner scrum he is eighth heading into day two.

The JRX category features five cars in Germany. Kevin Hansen won both races from start to finish while it was much more competitive behind. Oscar Solberg, son of Henning, makes his JRX debut here and is obviously fast, throwing his JRX machine around with flowing abandon. Current championship leader William Nilsson is second having driven two clever races in the traffic while Magda Andersson came back from ripping a wheel off in free practice to finish both races and is third overall.

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