REPORT: Record breaking Kristoffersson extends World RX points lead with Latvia RX win.

PHOTO CREDIT: FIA World Rallycross Media.

PSRX Volkwagen Sweden’s Johan Kristoffersson has extended his lead in the FIA World Rallycross Championship by winning round nine at the Neste World RX of Latvia.

Kristoffersson continued his record breaking run claiming maximum points, a sixth straight top qualifiers position (a new record) and a record eighth win of the season at the wheel of his Volkswagen Polo R in Riga. 

Three manufacturers were represented on the Latvia RX podium with EKS Audi Sport’s Mattias Ekstrom finishing as runner-up and Team Peugeot Total’s Sebastien Loeb completing the podium..

Ekstrom also claimed the Monster Energy Supercharge Award for having the fastest reaction time at the start of the final as he moved to second in the race behind Kristoffersson at the first corner.

In the battle for position at turn one, GRX Taneco’s Niclas Gronholm climbed to third. The Finnish driver had a strong race in his Hyundai i20, in which he challenged Loeb for a place on the podium until the chequered flag, equalling his best result of the season so-far from round one at Catalunya-Barcelona.

All three Team Peugeot Total drivers; Loeb, Timmy and Kevin Hansen started the final and the Hansen brothers ran fifth and sixth after the start. Timmy passed Kevin for fifth on lap one, the pair finishing in the same positions at the end of the six laps.

“Mattias (Ekstrom) had a slightly better launch than me in the semi-final but I just braked as late as I could to take the lead and from there on we had a race for the first three laps. I did some mistakes to be honest and after that I was a little but more cautious,” said Kristoffersson. “In the final I had a great launch, we did some small changes on the car between the semi-final and final, it was actually a little bit better so the last one and a half laps of the final reminded me of last year’s win here.” 

Ekstrom was happy with a strong weekend in Riga to finish second in the final. “I’m pleased about the solid weekend, we had several good preliminary races and made great starts,”  said Ekstrom. “But I obviously want to win races – and we were very close again here. There are several World Championship rounds still ahead of us and we’ll be fighting just as hard.”

Sebastien Loeb finished on the podium at the circuit where he won his first World RX final in 2016. “The weekend went quite well. We had a very good Q1, then I struggled a bit in Q2 – I hit a tyre barrier in the fight in the first corner, then after that I had a problem with my front-left suspension so lost quite a bit of time," said Loeb. "Finally, Q3 and Q4 were good today. I think we have good pace, the problem for us is that the three manufacturers have nearly the same pace, it’s very difficult to make a difference on the track. I’m happy to be back on the podium for sure.”

Petter Solberg finished fourth in semi-final one and Andreas Bakkerud was fourth in semi-final two. Both GC Kompetition drivers, Guerlain Chicherit and Liam Doran challenged for a place in the final and finished fifth in their respective semi-finals, but both GRX Taneco’s Timur Timerzyanov and EKS Audi Sport’s Nico Muller were unable to finish their semi-finals after contact. ALL-INKL.COM Munnich Motorsport’s Timo Scheider was first reserve for the semi-finals in 13th, ahead of Latvian star Janis Baumanis.