Wednesday 16 September 2020

20 cars set for eRX2's inaugural season in 2021.

PHOTO CREDIT: FIA eRX2 Championship.
The inaugural season of the FIA eRX2 Championship – the first-ever FIA electric rallycross championship – will see up to 20 drivers racing wheel-to-wheel for the honor of being crowned the first electric rallycross champion.

Preparations are well underway ahead of eRX2’s eagerly-anticipated debut next year, with the championship primed to electrify the international rallycross scene. Testing is well underway, and a full grid of 20 cars is scheduled to be built between now and the first race – setting the scene for an electrifying maiden campaign of competition.

eRX2 will join the FIA World Rallycross Championship for six events in 2021 – with the calendar to be released in due course – the cars will mark a significant step forward in both power (+24%) and torque (+14%) compared to the existing Supercar Lites car, further bridging the gap to the headlining Supercar class.

"We are delighted to be able to reveal more details about the new FIA eRX2 Championship, which has already attracted a high degree of interest. Our testing programme is yielding very positive results, and the car is showing its potential to be even quicker and more exhilarating both to drive and to watch than the existing internal combustion vehicle," Pere Gonzalez, Project Manager for the FIA eRX2 Championship, said. 

"We understand that there are some misgivings – and misapprehensions – about electric rallycross, but our extensive experience and success in electro-mobility leaves us very confident that this is absolutely the way forward for the sport and that the final product will be the most dynamic, advanced and future-thinking car ever to grace a rallycross track.

"Not only that, but with drivers able to play a greater role than before in setting up and calibrating the car, even a few seconds before starting the races, the action is sure to be fast, exciting and thrillingly unpredictable – a true level playing field in which the cream will inevitably rise to the top," he adds.

In a first for rallycross – drivers will have three key parameters to play with before and between races, injecting an extra element of skill into the equation. 

From inside the cockpit, competitors will be able to manually adjust the amount of torque produced by the front and rear motors, the total torque deployed by all four wheels during the launch, and the degree of regenerative braking on the front and rear axles.

On the outside, the noise will be generated by the drivetrain running at more than 12,000rpm as well as the gravel spray and tyre squeals so synonymous with rallycross..

The total cost to enter a full season of eRX2 in 2021 is between €150,000 and €160,000, which includes the provision of one mechanic per car – trained in electro-mobility by sector specialist QEV Technologies – and a comprehensive engineering service, composed of one chassis engineer and one electric engineer for every four cars.

Charging, tyres, and other consumables such as brake pads are included in the full-season cost. Hospitality will also form part of the package, as will regular educational workshops on electric technology. The cost to enter a single event is €30.000.

Earlier this month, it was announced that Henrik Krogstad will be one of the first drivers to race in the new FIA eRX2 Championship in 2021 as prize for winning the 2020 RX2 International Series.

Written By - Junaid Samodien

Ekström to continue championship charge with KYB Team JC

PHOTO CREDIT: Red Bull Content Pool.
2016 World Champion Mattias Ekström will continue with KYB Team JC this weekend, at the Latvian double-header in Riga. 

Ekström was drafted into the team just before the first rounds of the season in Höljes after Jānis Baumanis was hit by financial issues as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Earlier this week, Ekström was announced as the first driver for the new Cupra-backed Abt Extreme E team for 2021, and he will continue to race with KYB Team JC after being given permission by Cupra to race in the Latvian double-header this weekend.

"It’s been a pretty cool week for me, with the launch of the Extreme E programme with CUPRA for 2021," Ekström said. "That’s really exciting, and big thanks to ABT and CUPRA for allowing me to go to Riga for the next World RX races."

The Swede's return after a one-year hiatus has been first-class having won the second round of the championship in Höljes, and lies second in the Drivers' Championship only 17 points behind Johan Kristofferssson.   

"The first four races turned out pretty fine with three podiums, so being second in the championship and to be leading the Teams’ Championship, I’m in a situation I didn’t expect," the double world champion said. "I felt a bit obliged to do my very best to go to Riga, I want to continue supporting the JC team as much as I can."

In his three previous starts in Riga, Ekström finished second in the final every time (2016,17,18) and will aim to climb onto the top step of the podium this weekend.  

"We are very happy to have Mattias back in the team," said Joel Christoffersson, KYB Team JC, Team Principal. "I didn’t know if it would be possible for him to come to Latvia, but I’m thankful to CUPRA for letting us have him in the team for the event. It’s great that we can continue with the same team setup that we have had so far this year because we were very successful in the first two weekends of the season."

Whilst Joel Christoffersson has one eye on World RX Teams' Championship, he admits that KYB Team JC are aiming to close the gap to Kristoffersson in an aim to claim both World RX titles this season.

"I’m looking forward to continuing the fight for the Teams’ Championship but obviously, we are second in the Drivers’ Championship too and we are not giving up that fight in trying to do our best to close the gap up to Johan [Kristoffersson]," he said.

Written By - Junaid Samodien

Kristoffersson aims to extend championship lead in Riga.

PHOTO CREDIT: Red Bull Content Pool.
Johan Kristoffersson heads to Riga with a seventeen point advantage in the 2020 FIA World Rallycross Championship over Mattias Ekström, with one aim in mind - to extend the championship lead. 

The two-time World Champion has been nothing short of spectacular this season having claimed the converted top qualifiers spot in all four rounds thus far, and was only able to convert two pole position starts to victories. 

With a win in Höljes and one in Kouvola, he has amassed 111 points, compared to Mattias Ekström on 94 points and Niclas Grönholm's on 76 points. 

"Many points are up for grabs this weekend but I hope to keep the distance", Kristoffersson said.

With two doubleheaders, the first in Sweden followed by Finland two weeks ago, it has been a very demanding start to the season for all involved due to the compressed 2020 FIA World Rallycross Championship calendar as a result of the Coronavirus pandemic. 

"I was really exhausted coming home from Finland, but during a bike ride a couple of days later I found my way back to normal," he said. 

The Swede has not had it all his own way thus far despite a dominant performance in qualifying. In Kouvola (Finland), his Volkswagen Polo suffered from a mechanical issue, which the team was able to solve ahead of the semi-finals and final. 

To get ahead of the double world champion, Ekström and Grönholm had to capitalize on joker lap tactics and mistakes from the Swede to get ahead and ultimately win. 

While Kristoffersson rues these missed opportunities in Sweden and Finland, he is eager to get ahead of the game with a full analysis programme ahead of the Latvian doubleheader this weekend. 

"I always do a lot of analysis and this track gives you a great output if you do your job right," he said. "Lately, my office has looked like a surveillance center, with all the screens, servers, and hard drives."

"There are a lot of details in this track, with a racing character, but more technical than for example Lohéac. I look at my own performances, but also analyze my competitors. We all have different backgrounds, from rally and racing to rallycross, and every driver makes their own considerations. You have to pick the best options."

Johan has great memories from the Bikernieki circuit, where he secured his first championship title in 2017 and returned for another win in 2018. 

"17th September 2017, a day to be remembered, and coming back in 2018 was a special feeling as well," he adds.

Tommy Kristoffersson, the team boss of Volkswagen Dealerteam BAUHAUS is well aware of the importance of the weekend in Latvia and has bolstered the team with more personnel from Volkswagen Motorsport in a pursuit for the much desired third crown. A good result in Riga can put Johan in a great position for the rest of the season.

"We have boosted our team with even more knowledge from Volkswagen Motorsport, the best there is, which of course also includes our own guys, who have worked tirelessly so far," Timmy Kristoffersson said. "We are ready to fight!"

Written By - Junaid Samodien

Tuesday 15 September 2020

Portugal World Rallycross round cancelled due to COVID-19 pandemic.


The Portuguese round of the 2020 FIA World Rallycross Championship calendar has been cancelled.

Montalegre was set to host the eighth round of the FIA World Rallycross Championship on 10-11 October (2020) after a one-year hiatus but the event has now been cancelled due to ongoing concerns surrounding the coronavirus pandemic.

"In light of continued global health concerns regarding COVID-19 (Coronavirus), the current evolution of the pandemic in Portugal, the new State of Contingency enforced by the Portuguese authorities starting September 15 th, which brings new freedom of travel limitations and stricter public gathering rules, the World Rallycross of Portugal 2020, scheduled to be hosted at Montalegre International Circuit on 10-11 October, will unfortunately not take place this year," the event organizers statement said.

"The health and safety of everyone involved remain the priority as we navigate these unprecedented circumstances."

Due to the ever-changing situation surrounding the Coronavirus, the 2020 FIA World Rallycross Championship calendar has undergone a number of changes, and Portugal is one of them. However, despite the cancellation of the event this year. Montalegre will return to the calendar in 2020, according to the event organizers. 

"We very much look forward to welcoming the drivers, teams, and fans to the Montalegre International Circuit for this world-class event in 2021," the statement concluded.

The revised calendar will see Circuit de Catalunya-Barcelona hosting the fourth doubleheader (rounds seven and eight) followed by the World RX of Benelux at Spa-Francorchamps, which was moved to November in order to allow more fans to attend followed by the season finale at the Nurburgring (Germany) in mid-December. 

Written By Junaid Samodien

Tuesday 8 September 2020

Will Mattias Ekström return for Riga doubleheader?

PHOTO CREDIT: JC Raceteknik
Mattias Ekström made an unexpected return to the 2020 FIA World Rallycross Championship after Jānis Baumanis ran into COVID-19 related funding problems and is therefore unable to complete the full season with KYB Team JC. 

Ekström has achieved a lot of success in his career having won two DTM titles and a World Rallycross title in 2016. The Swede competed in a number of motorsport disciplines from Swedish Touring Cars to DTM, WRC, NASCAR, and even V8 Supercars. 

In 2013, he branched out into rallycross where he competed in the Swedish round of the European Rallycross Championship in Höljes, finishing second. He subsequently announced that he was establishing his own EKS RX team to compete in the FIA World Rallycross Championship. The team made their debut at the Norwegian round of the 2014 European Rallycross Championship where Ekström claimed an 11th-place finish. He returned for the German round of the championship where he claimed victory. 

He also claimed a victory at the Swedish round of the World RX championship that same year followed up with a second-place finish in Germany. 

2015 saw the Swede return for all but two World RX events, and won his home round in Sweden for the second year in a row. 

In his first full World RX season in 2016, Ekström claimed four event wins on his way to the 2016 Drivers' Championship title. The 2017 and 18 seasons would see him finish second in the championship behind Johan Kristoffersson. 

In 2018, Ekström retired from DTM to focus on his rallycross team, and with factory support from Audi Sport, all seemed rosy. Until Audi Sport announced that they will withdraw from the sport at the end of the 2018 season, which subsequently lead to the Swede announcing that he will call time on his full-time World RX career. 

After catching a glimpse of World RX on his couch in 2019, the Swedish champion returned for an outing at the World RX of Benelux at Spa-Francorchamps with JC Raceteknik in the Audi S1 that carried him to the 2016 title. 

Ekström jumps Kristoffersson to win in Sweden.
PHOTO CREDIT: Red Bull Content Pool.
JC Raceteknik later acquired a further five Audi S1 Quattro Supercars from EKS RX to launch a new team named, KYB Team JC. And, whilst plans were to have reigning European Rallycross Champion Robin Larsson and Jānis Baumanis in the pair of Audi S1 Supercars. Baumanis was unable to provide the necessary funding to compete in the full World RX campaign due to COVID-19 related problems, and therefore the Swedish outfit required a driver at short notice to step into his place. 

The team principal of KYB Team JC, Joel Christoffersson called upon the services of Mattias Ekström, who he knows comes with a lot of experience, tips, and tricks, and he also knows the Audi S1 Supercars quite well.

In the Höljes doubleheader, he claimed a second-place finish in round one followed by a victory in round 2. Mattias returned for the second World RX doubleheader in Finland where he claimed a seventh-place finish in round three and a second-place finish in round four. With these strong results, the Swede is currently placed second in the drivers' standings.

The question on everyone's lips after the first four rounds of the FIA World Rallycross Championship is: Should Mattias Ekström return for the Latvian round of the championship or the full 2020 FIA World Rallycross Championship? 

It’s a rather difficult question to answer, purely because Mattias once owned a team (EKS RX) where he could make those sorts of decisions. This time around it’s slightly different because he’d be required to bring along the necessary funding in order to race for the team. 

Whilst Ekström comes with a wealth of experience and is a master tactician, unfortunately, it counts for nothing. The Audi S1 supercars now owned by KYB Team JC were also built and developed around Mattias in 2018, which gives him an upper hand over teammates.  

Mattias Ekström did not expect to race in Sweden this year and has other commitments that will clash with the 2020 World RX season. Could we see him return for the Latvian rounds of the season?

"There’s no plan for what happens next," Ekström said. "I know that there are other people that want to drive this car in Riga, so that could also be an option. I think it will be a little while before we decide."

KYB Team JC's Joel Christoffersson would like Mattias to continue but is aware that budget and other commitments could get in way of the 2016 Champion. 

"The question I keep getting asked is about the future of Mattias in the team. It would be brilliant if he continued with KYB Team JC, but it also looks tough for him, both with budget and other commitments, so we will have to see," Joel Christoffersson said. "We have a week or so to find a solution for Riga, otherwise we need to find an alternative."

While we have no solid answer to this question. There is no doubt that many fans would really like to see Mattias Ekström complete the full season with KYB Team JC. 

Should he return for the remaining rounds of the 2020 FIA World Rallycross Championship, we are likely to see a close title fight to the checkered flag in Germany (season finale). 

Written By - Junaid Samodien

Wednesday 2 September 2020

"No point to cry over spilt milk" as Ekström claims second-place finish in challenging Kouvola double header.

PHOTO CREDIT: FIA World RX. 
2016 World Champion Mattias Ekström finished second in round four of the World Rallycross Championship at Kouvola in Finland, while KYB Team JC maintained their lead in the Teams’ championship standings.

With four races in nine days for the start of the 2020 FIA World Rallycross Championship, the third and fourth rounds were held in Finland.

On day one, Ekström was again straight on the pace and qualified second in the Intermediate Classification, then was second in the semi-finals, but a rare electrical problem on the second lap saw him retire from the race. Robin Larsson had initially struggled on the Tykkimäki Circuit but made a great start in Q3 to set the second-fastest time. And, despite making the semi-finals, he retired with a puncture.

The heavens opened for round four of the championship (on Sunday), and in wet and tricky conditions, Ekström qualified third and was second in his semi-final to make it into the final. In the final, he pushed hard throughout the race and in a battle for the podium positions in the final corner, finished second behind Niclas Gronhölm. 

"Finishing second feels pretty okay. It's no secret that I compete to win, and to come second is very close. On Saturday things looked good in the semi-finals, but then the day came to an abrupt end, which was not fun for any of us," Ekström said. "Today I thought we made good laps, but didn’t have perfect starts. That makes things difficult. But, we had good speed this weekend and that’s always positive."

"Of course we want to be at the top of the championship, and to see Johan [Kristoffersson] pull away is not what we want, but there is no point to cry over spilt milk."

Reigning EuroRX champion Robin Larsson had a more difficult time. He was ninth in the Intermediate Classification after the four qualifiers but finished fifth in his semi-final when the windscreen wipers stopped working in the muddy conditions.

"It hasn’t been an easy weekend for me, things just haven’t been going my way. When you have double-header events there are not many opportunities to make changes because the days are quite intense," Larsson said. 

"On Saturday we had good pace in Q3, but I had a puncture in the semi-final. Then on Sunday I was unlucky with the start positions and didn’t really find the pace we wanted."

"I had a place for the final in the bag on Sunday but the windscreen wipers broke, and that was it. Now I’m focused on Riga and I’m fully motivated. There are still many points to race for."

Larsson believes that the only way he can improve is to compare himself to teammate Mattias Ekström.

"It’s been good to have someone like Mattias to compare myself with. Because of that, I’ve been able to see what I’m doing wrong and work on it. Without him there, it would be easy to get grumpy and more frustrated."

KYB Team JC continues to lead the Teams’ Championship, by 19 points, whilst Ekström is also still second in the Drivers’ Championship. Larsson is now sixth.

"We have a good lead in the Teams’ championship, even if we gave away a few points there. We will continue to work hard before Riga, we seem to have a car that will suit us there," Joel Christoffersson, KYB Team JC, Team Principal, said. "But, unfortunately in the Drivers’ championship, we lost a lot of points to Johan. But after the problems we had on Saturday, we have to live with that and use it to motivate us to work even harder."

Written By - Junaid Samodien

Tuesday 1 September 2020

"We’ve made many, many steps in the right direction" - Andreas Bakkerud.

PHOTO CREDIT: GC Kompetition.
The Monster Energy GCK RX Cartel has made steps in the right direction after a difficult start to the 2020 FIA World Rallycross Championship

The doubleheader in Sweden saw Andreas Bakkerud qualify for the final, and finish in the position he started - 6th, while his teammate Liam Doran had a weekend to forget after his Megane R.S. RX suffered from a number mechanical failures. 

Round 3 in Kouvola-Finland saw Doran claim an eight-place finish after Q1, but that is where his luck ended. The British Bomb retired from Q2 with prop shaft failure, while Q3 saw him retire from the session with a broken rim and broken rear upright due to contact at turn one. 

Andreas Bakkerud on the other hand had a much smoother Saturday with consistent top-ten finishes in the three qualifying heats and ranked seventh in the intermediate classification meaning he was through to the semi-finals, while his teammate was done for the day. 

Sunday (round 4) got off to a costly start after the FIA Stewards fined the team €5,000 for a breach of the COVID-19 supplementary regulations. 

However, in a statement issued to DirtFish.com, GCK explained the reason for the breach of COVID-19 regulations: "Some of our team members missed this morning’s temperature check at the entrance gate by mistake, having used a different gate that was open to enter the circuit."

"Having arrived from a different direction today, the team members entered through the first open gate leading to their team structure to start their working day.

"However, this gate was not manned and the guys therefore missed their morning temperature check. Upon realizing, they were asked to go and retake their tests, which of course everyone did promptly and successfully."

Round 4 of the championship got off to a wet start in Kouvola. A wet day that brought tons of action and an epic comeback from Liam Doran who fought his way from 17th to 14th overall. 

PHOTO CREDIT: FIA World RX. 
In a bold call on a moist track, Doran bolted on a set of slicks and immediately went backwards off the line to finish the session 13th overall. The Brit drove a fantastic Q2, and while leading, his hopes went rolling away after a broken wheel bearing sent him sliding off the track. 

Speaking to Niel Cole, World RX paddock reporter directly after the race, Doran said: "I might as well stay at home and let someone else drive. I don't know how much longer I can do this."

Doran came out swinging in Q3 posting the fifth fastest time, but it wasn't enough to see the him progress to the semi-finals. He missed out on a spot in the semi-finals by 5 points. 

"Happy with that clean last run today," Doran said. "I think it showed that the car and I have the pace to perform, we just haven’t been able to put it fully together yet and perform as a pair. We changed the car’s set up throughout the day and you could definitely feel the difference in the last qualifier."

Meanwhile, Andreas Bakkerud claimed a ninth-place finish in round 3, and mounted a fightback on Sunday in the wet conditions.

Bakkerud claimed a second-place finish behind Mattias Ekstrom in Q1, which slotted him into fifth-place overall. Despite some challenges with traction at the start, Q2 saw Bakkerud put down a great run boldly overtaking Hansen on the last lap to finish in 3rd.

Q3 saw, Andreas finish in second just ahead of Timmy Hansen, which saw the Norweigan claiming a spot in the semi-final with a fifth-place finish overall. 

The Monster Energy GCK RX Cartel driver would line-up in the fastest semi-final with the likes of Mattias Ekstrom, Johan Kristoffersson, etc. And despite crossing the line in fourth-place, Juha Rytkonen was handed a five-second penalty, which promoted the Norwegian to the final. 

The final didn't quite go the way Bakkerud expected despite sneaking up the inside of Timur Timerzyanov and Timmy Hansen at turn one. Timur fought back into turn two pushing Andreas wide, with Timmy getting through. From there, he was unable to make any progress after his windscreen was filled with mud meaning he would race all the way to the checkered flag blind and would finish the final in sixth-place. 

"Overall, we’ve made many, many steps in the right direction - we didn’t have any big technical issues but the super tricky conditions impacted our overall performance," Bakkerud said. "We’re proud to have put the car into the final to fight against 5 top drivers and this is where I think we should play all the time."

"Considering the quickly changing conditions, I think we tactically played our cards right but had some small issues in the semi-finals and finals, which we need to analyse further and work on ahead of Riga. I have full confidence that we will be spraying champagne at the end of the day there."

Written By - Junaid Samodien

UNKORRUPTED make strides in right direction.

PHOTO CREDIT: GC Kompetition.
UNKORRUPTED has made strides in the right direction after a difficult start to the 2020 FIA World Rallycross Championship. 

For the first time since 2014, the tight and technical Kouvola track (Finland) returned to the championship, bringing along with it a driver change at UNKORRUPTED. 

Despite Rokas Baciuska's 11th-place finish in Sweden, he took a step back and made way for Dutchman Kevin Abbring who would return to World RX in the second Renault Clio in a bid to help the team find much-needed performance. 

On Saturday (round 1), Guerlain Chicherit missed out on a place in the semi-finals by two points after finishing Q4 in fourteenth overall. Whilst his teammate Kevin Abbring also showed glimpses of pace, until his prop shaft broke dropping him to 17th overall.

Tricky conditions greeted the French squad on Sunday, creating extremely slippery and quick-changing conditions throughout the day. It was another opportunity for the team to test the Clio R.S. RX in a bid to improve the cars' traction in wet conditions. Kevin Abbring tested a different setup to Chicherit for the team to gather data and feedback quicker. The Dutchman struggled with his car's grip finishing Q1 in 15th overall. 

Abbring fought back in Q2 sending it around the outside of Timur Timerzyanov to take the lead before a battle with Liam Doran saw Abbring drop to third behind Doran and Timerzyanov, but soon after Liam's front right driveshaft snapped. And in the end, Kevin would finish in third with teammate Guerlain in fourth. 

Q3 posed a unique challenge, as the UNKORRUPTED pair would race on a devolving track. Chicherit would finish his quali heat in 4th, while Abbring finished behind his fellow GCK stable mate Anton Marklund in fifth-place, which meant both of them would not qualify for the semi-finals. 

"We saw some progress today in lap times, both on dry and wet and while this is promising, we still have a long way to go," Chicherit said.

"The last few weekends have been an uphill climb for us and we’re just trying to find out as much as possible in the short time that we have to make changes. It’s been hard for the team, the mechanics, engineers, and us drivers, especially as the car has not been reacting consistently and very differently to what we achieved in tests throughout the winter."

"We now have a few weeks ahead of the next round and we’ll definitely make use of those!”

Kevin Abbring believes that the set-up changes they've done in Kouvola have brought the team a step close to understanding where the car is lacking.

"We’ve done so many things since Sweden and sometimes it’s hard to know what works and what doesn’t but I think in the end, we’re a step closer to what it is that the car is lacking," Abbring said. "If you look at Q2, the car gave me a lot of confidence, a really good start and a nice send into turn 1, so that’s positive. In Q3 in the rain, we didn’t quite hit the right pace on the tarmac but on the gravel, I was one of the strongest in the sector."

"The overall results may not seem like that yet but we’re getting there."

Written By - Junaid Samodien

Consistency key to maximizing results in condensed season for Timmy Hansen.

PHOTO CREDIT: Red Bull Content Pool.
Reigning World RX champion Timmy Hansen believes that consistency is key to maximizing results in the 2020 FIA World Rallycross Championship.

Hansen is currently fourth in the drivers' standings (41 points) behind championship leader Johan Kristoffersson, with younger brother Kevin in fifth overall.  

Whilst the season did not get off to the way Team Hansen expected, Kenneth Hansen (team boss) was able to figure out the reasons behind the team's pace in Sweden, which saw Timmy showing a stronger pace in Kouvola, after confirming that he did not feel as comfortable in the Peugeot 208 WRX as he was in 2019.

With some work done between Sweden and Finland, the Peugeot's were slightly stronger, but still off the ultimate pace of Johan Kristoffersson (the benchmark). 

On Saturday, Timmy returned to the podium with a third-place finish, while Kevin finished in sixth-place. With overnight rain saw track conditions became tricky seeing Timmy Hansen missing out on a podium finish by 0.7s.

Kevin definitely had the pace to progress to the finals on Sunday, but the slimmest of margins saw him miss out (0.060s). 

"It was a wet race so we had to set-up the car completely for those conditions, and we made some progress in that area," Kevin Hansen said. "I had the best feeling during the semi-final; I was very fast and had never felt so confident in the wet, so I was very happy in that respect."

Although only one of two cars made it to the final, Timmy Hansen had a good start from the second row of the grid, he ran a touch wide at the first corner seeing Ekstrom, Bakkerud, and Timerzyanov sneak up the inside, and while Bakkerud ran into technical issues at turn two, Timmy moved into P5. And, despite a fight in the final corner between Gronholm, Ekstrom, Timerzyanov, Kristoffersson - Timmy was not close enough and finished in fifth-place.

"The key was consistency and being able to maximize our pace when the opportunity arose," Timmy Hansen said.

The condensed 2020 World RX calendar has posed unique challenges to the teams this season, with three doubleheaders - two events per weekend opposed to the normal two day single event weekends, which will return in the second half of the season. Any mechanical or technical issues would punish drivers due to the quick turnaround times. And, Timmy credits Team Hansen for a clean start to the season thus far. 

"The team is really strong together; we're very motivated and everyone is working very hard. The car's still very strong and it got to the finish line every time with no technical issues," the 2019 World Champion said. "They've had the most difficult World RX events ever, doing two weekends with two full championship rounds each back-to-back, so the team has done an incredible job of keeping the car in one piece. So I need to thank them for all their work, for being able to figure out the problem that slowed me down in Sweden, and we'll continue to work on finding more pace between now and Riga."

Double World RX Champion Johan Kristoffersson returned to the championship this season, and whilst he has dominated qualifying, he hasn't had it all his own way only converting two of four finals into wins. Timmy Hansen believes that despite Johan's strong start to the season, he aims to get onto the top step of the podium this season. 

"I want to win a couple of races this year. Johan is incredibly strong and has been dominant so far this year but he is beatable, as others have shown twice now," he said. "I also want to get onto the top step of the podium this year and we'll keep fighting towards that."

Written By - Junaid Samodien

Spa World RX of Benelux rescheduled to allow larger fan numbers to attend.

PHOTO CREDIT: FIA World RX.
The Spa World Rallycross of Benelux scheduled to take place on 3-4 October, will be rescheduled to 21-22 November 2020.

The Spa-Francorchamps World RX track was an instant hit since it's introduction last year, incorporating the world-famous Eau Rouge, as well as a dirt banked section which made for exciting racing, in addition to that a new World RX race winner was crowned, Timur Timerzyanov.

"The move to November is being made in anticipation of being able to welcome a larger number of fans to the Circuit de Spa-Francorchamps. As current restrictions on the size of public gatherings in Belgium mean that only 400 spectators would be admitted to the event in October," the FIA World RX statement said.

"This decision has been made after careful consideration and consultation with the FIA, the Belgian ASN, and the local event organizer."

The rescheduled Belgian round will open up the October month for the teams, as they'll have enough time to re-prep their cars, as the calendar will switch from three rounds to two in October. Whilst the move to November will see a month break between the Barcelona and Belgian rounds, followed by an 18-day gap before the season finale in Germany.