Ekstrom claims maiden World Rallycross win

Proving that his day one pace was no fluke, Mattias Ekstrom continued his form through the second day of the fifth round of the FIA World Rallycross Championship at Holjes, Sweden. Top at the Intermediate Classification, Ekstrom won his semi final final to become the fifth different winner from as many events, and the first driver to take maximum points.

While Ekstrom stole the headlines, Sebastien Eriksson stunned on his debut performance in Supercar, fast throughout the event, he too won his semi final to line up on the front row with Ekstrom. The young Swede made the best start and took the lead, but it was Ekstrom who jokered first and came out on top in the end. Eriksson led from Petter Solberg mid race, but picked up suspension damage, opting to take his joker on the fourth tour, followed by Solberg who had already committed and tried to avoid taking the extra route at the same time as Eriksson, Solberg having a half spin in the process.

Andreas Bakkerud had jokered on lap one, and closed on the Eriksson / Solberg battle when Eriksson spun at the end of lap six. Solberg had picked up a puncture, but so had Bakkerud, the younger of the two Norwegians passing his more experienced compatriot to finish second, with Solberg in third, just inches ahead of Reinis Nitiss who continues to lead the championship. Liam Doran had his best result of the season in fifth, Eriksson recovered to finish sixth.

Semi final one produced plenty of drama, as Daniel Holten, Timur Timerzyanov and Pontus Tidemand all put themselves out of contention with spins, while in semi final two Toomas Heikkinen finished just behind Solberg and missed out on the final. Timmy Hansen retired with engine failure on lap two, while Tord Linnerud retired on the first lap.

Henning Solberg was unusually out of the semi finals in 13th, ahead of Anton Marklund who was left rueing an over excessive jump in his heat one race. Alexander Hvaal drove his own Hansen Motorsport built Citroen DS3 in Holjes but couldn’t find the form he craves, while Eric Faren produced one of the drives of the event to collect a championship point in 16th in only his second Supercar event. Jacques Villeneuve was again out of the points, while great things were expected from the Kristoffersson Motorsport pairing of Johan Kristoffersson and Ole Christian Veiby, they finished 20th and 21st. 2013 European Championship runner up Davy Jeanney 23rd on his debut for the Monster Energy World RX Team.

Kevin Eriksson won the RX Lites Cup final after a race long battle with Kevin Hansen when the pair came together on the final lap, Hansen being forced onto the grass and jumping into the air to finish second, with Richard Goransson in third. Ondrej Smetana came of age in Super1600, top at the Intermediate Classification and winning his semi final, but was pushed off by Sergej Zagumennov in the first corner of the final and would finish second, ahead of Nikita Misyulya who flew in the final from the back of the grid to finish third. Championship contender Ulrik Linnemann retired on day one with engine problems. Tom Daniel Tanevik claimed his second TouringCar win of the season with Fredrik Salsten second and Per Magne Royras in third, championship leader Daniel Lundh failed to make it to the final.

[portfolio_slideshow]