Hvaal again as Timerzyanov keeps crown

Timur Timerzyanov finished fourth at the final round of the FIA European Rallycross Championship Presented by Monster Energy at the Estering, Germany (Sept 22) and collected his second championship title in a row: “I’m so happy. At the start of the year I didn’t expect to take the championship again but I wanted it really badly and it’s amazing that we have managed it. We approached this weekend the same as we have all season, the most important thing is consistency and stability,” said the delighted Russian.

The event in Germany was won by Norwegian driver Alexander Hvaal who took his second of the week having won last time out in Austria. The final was stopped and the result declared at four laps when Stig-Olov Walfridson’s Renault Clio stopped in the joker lap section with an engine fire. Timerzyanov had led the final from the start until the red flag. However, he was the only one of the four remaining runners who had not taken the joker lap when the race was stopped and was given a time penalty by the stewards, dropping him to fourth in the results. The final order was Hvaal, ahead of Andreas Bakkerud in second place with his LD Motorsport team-mate Liam Doran in third. Having got both cars to the final again, the LDMS squad were later awarded with a trophy for the most successful team in the championship, having gathered four wins from nine events.

Petter Solberg had been fastest all weekend but crashed out of the final before he even got to the first corner. Championship contenders Davy Jeanney and Timmy Hansen had frustrating weekends; Jeanney started badly by forgetting to take his joker lap in the first heat; he finished up fourth in semi-final one. Timmy Hansen joined the French driver in semi-final one but rolled out of the race on the first lap. He finished up third in the standings and took the award for best rookie.

Reinis Nitiss took his sixth victory of the season to confirm his championship in style, taking the win ahead of team mate Timur Shigaboutinov who scored his best ever result. Set Promotion also picking up a most successful team award for its part in the Latvian’s success. Ulrik Linnemann finished third on the podium having won semi-final two to climb up to third in the championship, just one point ahead of Eric Faren who finished fifth, behind Sergey Zagummenov in fourth. Ildar Rakhmatullin came of worst in the first corner squeeze and finished sixth.

TouringCar victory went to Robin Larsson who led the final from start to finish. Anders Braten made a good start and took his joker on lap one. Running second Ole Habjorg took his joker on lap two, with Lars Rosenthal taking his on lap three. With those ahead taking their jokers Braten rose to second and stayed there until the end, behind Larsson who claimed victory. Habjorg and Rosenthal fought it out for the final podium position, Habjorg eventually coming out on top. Daniel Lundh finished fifth while champion Derek Tohill retired on lap three with damage incurred in turn one, his team also rewarded for being the most successful.

The JRX championship went right down to the wire. Kevin Hansen was top at the Intermediate Classification to draw level on points with season long championship leader William Nilsson. Hansen made the best start in the final and despite Nilsson’s best efforts he couldn’t catch his fellow Swede; Hansen took the race victory and the championship by a single point. Oscar Solberg, son of Supercar driver Henning finished third on his rallycross debut.

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