Hungary turns up the heat, as the FIA World Rallycross Championship serves up a thrilling double-header at the 'Red Cauldron', with Niclas Grönholm and Johan Kristoffersson winning Rounds 3 and 4 respectively in the ‘Battle of Technologies’ at the World RX of Hungary. 
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Six-time World Champion Johan Kristoffersson kickstarted his 2024 campaign in commanding fashion winning both rounds in Holjes, Sweden earlier this month in the teams' newly-developed Volkswagen 601 KMS RX sustainably-fuelled combustion-engined Supercar, while his rivals expect the 'Battle of Technologies' to sway between ICE and EV cars, as the season progresses.
Nyirád's famous 'Red Cauldron' played host to rounds 3 and 4 of the World RX Championship, and boy did it deliver, as Johan Kristoffersson and Kevin Hansen were quite literally locked in a sprint to the tight turn one, with neither of them willing to concedes as the field barrelled into the first corner, and both had heavy impacts into the outside barrier, with Hansen's damaged Peugeot 208 RX1e going no further, whilst Niclas Grönholm, cool as a cucumber navigated his way through to the lead, and eventually, his first victory of the season ahead of new father, and second-placed finisher Ole Christian Veiby by 5.364s with Hungarian Jankó Wieszt reaching the rostrum on his World RX debut. Behind them were champions, Timmy Hansen in fourth and Kristoffersson in fifth, who lost heaps of time due to suspension damage from the turn-one incident.
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“I am proud of everyone in the team, they have been working hard and now when we get the results it is amazing. We are here to win and do good, so it is a good reward to everyone and a testament to our core philosophy of equal and sustainable motorsport,” Grönholm said.
Following the final, the FIA Stewards investigated the first corner incident between Johan Kristoffersson and Kevin Hansen, and deemed the reigning World Champion "predominately to blame for the first incident", whilst Hansen was disqualified for "failure to provide footage from the Judicial Camera".
With temperatures on the rise in Hungary and between rivals, Sunday was another day to find some improvements for all in the field, and that seemed to be the target for Johan Kristoffersson who was fairly mighty, despite damage in the second heat, he posted the fastest lap, and led from lights-to-flag in the semi-final and final, winning Round 4 by 10.809s to further extend his lead in the World RX championship. 
Round 4 Podium - Johan Kristoffersson winner [center], OC Veiby second [left], and Klara Andersson third [right]
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“Yesterday wasn’t a great day, but today was much better!” Kristoffersson said. “It’s been a great first experience here in Hungary and it’s been nice to see so many fans. I got a good start in the final and could then control the race from there – I wasn’t pushing hard. I just tried to drive smoothly and avoid making any mistakes. If I’d needed a real ‘killer’ lap, I’m pretty sure I could have gone quicker...”
Like a 24-hours earlier, OC Veiby finished second once again to jump from fourth to second in the drivers’ standings, while Klara Andersson came home third.
"Twice P2 is absolutely acceptable. Up to second place in the championship as well and many team points. It can't get any better," Veiby said.
Klara Andersson has been on fantastic form – but when margins are so tight a brush with a barrier on the joker lap in Saturday’s semi-final denied her a place in the Round 3 final, while bent steering after contact with the barriers at the first comer hampered her efforts of winning Sunday’s Round 4.
“It was a tough weekend, but I’m really happy to finish on the podium today. The car felt great, and winning two heats was a big highlight. A big decision today was switching to rain tires for the final, and it paid off as we secured third place. Standing on the podium and earning good points felt amazing. Sharing third place in the championship with Niclas is a great comeback from yesterday, but I know there’s more potential to unlock,” said Klara Andersson.
Coming into the Hungarian weekend, the Hansen World RX team drivers expected EV cars to get one over their sustainably-fuelled internal-combustion-engined rivals, but it was yet another difficult weekend. 
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Timmy Hansen finished fourth in both Saturday and Sunday’s finals, which was a scant reward for the driver’s efforts.
"A big thank you to our team. They worked until the early hours of the morning preparing for today and fixing the damage from yesterday. They did an amazing job and the cars were like new. The 'Battle of Technologies' is still in favour of the ICE cars, we are 160kg heavier than them and even with our extra power we can't seem to get the advantage," Timmy said. "We are fighting with the CE Dealer Team for best of the electric, and that fight is looking very close. We've got testing tomorrow so we'll be looking into everything and improving where we can ahead of Belgium."
The Hansen World RX team may still be searching for its first podium result of 2024, but nevertheless, Kevin and Timmy remain a close fourth and fifth in the points table respectively.
"This weekend has been a tough one for all of us. It was a very hot couple of days so it has been a real challenge to keep pushing forward, but the team were amazing and we kept improving the car step by step. We were much more in the fight today and that was a good feeling. Unfortunately, we couldn't get all the way to the podium on either day this weekend, but we'll keep pushing until we get that win," the younger Hansen brother said.
Having celebrated a third-place finish on Saturday, the former Hungarian rallycross champion Jankó Wieszt was involved in an incident on the run up to turn one in Sunday's semi-final, and after wheel-to-wheel contact, his Renault Megane rotated sharp left and hit the tyre wall bringing out a Red Flag.
Jankó Wieszt reaches the podium on debut.
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It wasn't smooth sailing for Rene Munnich either, as he was denied a place in the final after a turn-one incident as well, but just a day later, he made it through the semi-final, on course to a sixth-place finish on Sunday.
World RX returns on 17 to 18 August at Mettet, Belgium for rounds 5 and 6. Can anyone stop Kristoffersson?
