The first weekend of the season 2016 in the world of rally-cross-country race was eventful. It all started on Saturday — the first two qualifying sessions were held in the rain, which turned the track into a mud mess. Best of all with such conditions coped Scandinavian racers — the first four positions in the first and second qualifying divided between Johan Kristofferson, Mattias Ekström, Topi Heykkonen and Andreas Bakkerud.
On the second day the weather changed — sun dried the track, so the third and fourth qualification ended a little differently. The third was won by Petter Solberg, and the second Norwegian was second, behind all of the same Ekström — at the end of the qualifying sessions, the Swede came to the stage leaders.
Four qualifying session determined the list of participants, took place in the semi-finals. They are: Mattias Ekström, Petter Solberg, Johan Kristofferson, Andreas Bakkerud, Robin Larsson, Topi Heykkonen, Sebastien Loeb, Kevin Eriksson, Timmy Hansen, Davie Jeanne, Liam Doran and Anton Marklund.
Unfortunately for the Russian fans who turned 16 on-site Timur Timerzyanov failed to pass on — at this stage of the Portuguese for the Russians ended...
Both the first and second semi-final heats were held in a contact fight. And in the first semi-final of this has led to the gathering of one of the main favorites of the race.
Already at the start Timmy Hansen made a mistake under braking, crashed into Mattias Ekström and the result came down — the young pilot of Peugeot-Hansen even blame in the incident, he went too far with the speed and he himself suffered from it.
But the gathering of the young Swede is not much reduced Sweden's representative in the race — after the start in the leaders came his countryman Robin Larsson, who pursued another representative of the Scandinavian country's Mattias Ekström. However, their lead in the debut is not transformed into a high final results — they became only the third and fourth. We stopped at the beginning on the «joker-lap» Johan Kristofferson and Sebastien Loeb finished the semifinals on the first and second places. Liam Doran finished fifth.
In the second semi-final race two-time World Rally Champion Petter Solberg-cross did not start with a stop off at «joker-lap» — his example was followed only Davie Jeanne. The remaining four members of arrival Topi Heykkonen, Andreas Bakkerud, Kevin Eriksson and Anton Marklund departed service in the opening race.
Norwegians no one bothered to create a decent lead over rivals, so after his arrival at the «joker» Petter is back in the race leader. But riding after Jeanne passed forward two riders and dropped to the fourth position.
The peloton of six members continued to fight, but there were no signs of serious changes. However, Andreas Bakkeruda error start a chain of events and accidents...
Tries to outstrip Topi Heykkonena Norwegian made a mistake in the first corner, Ford put it sideways, it hit Jeanne and Eriksson took advantage of this and walked two rivals. But Bakkeruda not satisfied with this state of affairs — the loss of the third position meant that Andreas misses the final race — and rushed to attack Norway.
As a result, the final round was another encounter — this time group — from which the participants went in this order: Bakkerud, Ericsson, Jeanne, Marklund. The winner was the arrival Solberg and Heykkonen became the second.
In the final race, the fate of the villain did everything as much as possible to make life difficult for rivals Petter Solberg. Sebastien Loeb and Johan Kristofferson from the start went to the «joker-circle», it managed to make a crush, and as a result of both lost important seconds, which subsequently had a critical value at all Check the result.
Stop by the «Joker» in the fourth round Solberg drove back to the main road alongside Kristofferson and hit the Volkswagen Polo Swede in the area of the left front wheel. Johan car flew away and, as it became known later, his suspension was damaged. As a result, he was forced to slow down. At the same moment, Peugeot Loeb emerged with transmission problems and the Frenchman also slowed.
Petter also was the third — after Robin Larsson and Topi Heykkonenom. However, neither the Swedish nor the Finn at this point is not yet out of town on the «joker» and after they did, Solberg came in first place and brought the race to the finish.
Larsson took the second place, Heykkonen — the third. The fourth finished Andreas Bakkerud — not bad for a brand-new car Ford Focus RS Supercar Hoonigan Racing Division team. Sebastien Loeb finished the race fifth and Johan Kristofferson limped to the finish line on the last sixth position.
In addition to the races Supercar standings and the first stage was carried out in Portugal in monoprivodnom class Super 1600. Here the Russians were more fortunate — Timur Shigabutdinov brought his Renault Twingo to the finish line in third position. Ahead of him were only Dane Ulrik Linnemann and Portuguese Mario Barbosa. Two more Russians from the team TT Motorsport — Dmitry Malakhov and Yegor Sanin — could not get through to the final.
The winner of the Portuguese stage of the world rallycross is not a sensation, but already at the next race, which will take place in Germany at the Hockenheimring track in three weeks, everything can turn upside down. It remains to wait until May 6...
Photo: www.fiaworldrallycross.com
