"No way we leave" disappointed as Abbring fights with 3 gears.

PHOTO CREDIT: UNKORRUPTED.

The 2021 FIA World Rallycross Championship got underway with a bang at Barcelona in Spain, where UNKORRUPTED's Kevin Abbring claimed a sixth-place finish, leaving the curtain-raiser with 14 Championship points.  

Abbring impressed with promising pace from the offset, demonstrating the work that had gone into improving the Mégane R.S. RX. He won his first qualifier and continued in the same way in the 2nd qualifier, leading the pack until he clipped a track barrier and damaged his front right wing on the last lap, pushing him wide off the track, from where he finished that race in 4th.

Having finished day 1 in seventh overall and with the team having fixed the car overnight following the impact in Q2, the Dutchman kicked off day 2 in style, posting the 3rd fastest time in the morning warm-up.

Back in fighting form on Sunday morning, the Dutchman won his third qualifier despite some contact with Attila Mozer on the straight costing him significant time.

The last qualifier saw Kevin race into the lead for another qualifier win with the 6th fastest time of the qualifier and eighth overall in the intermediate rankings, bagging himself a spot on the 2nd row of the 2nd semi-final.

The semi-finals saw plenty of drama and following a massive fight into the first corner, where he managed to race into second despite losing two gears through the impact. He dropped into third upon re-joining the track following his joker and defended his position until he crossed the finish line for a place in the final.

With no time to get the car fixed in time for the final, Kevin lined up on the third row of the grid and carried his Mégane R.S. RX across the line in 6th place overall.

"It’s been a fantastic race weekend here in Barcelona and so good to see fans in the race stands again. We put down some great fights, showed good pace, and I’m pumped about the work we’ve put in as a team," Abbring said. 

"There’s always room for improvement but to race into the final despite having only 3 gears and having waited to race for so long, there’s no way we leave this place disappointed. We’ve shown we deserve to be amongst the top of the FIA World Rallycross Championship and I’m super excited to head to Sweden next."