There's just no stopping the double FIA World Rallycross Champion Johan Kristoffersson, who has taken the TQ (top qualifier) position for round two of the 2020 FIA World Rallycross Championship season in Holjes-Sweden.
PHOTO CREDIT: FIA World RX Media.
Kristoffersson took the quickest times in Q1 and Q3 in Holjes.
Whilst from the outside it might have looked like smooth sailing for the double World Champion, but once again he was made to work for it after Mattias Ekstrom was quickest in Q2 to briefly topped the intermediate classification.
With an alternative strategy in Q3 Race 4, Ekstrom immediately took the joker lap, a tactic he used throughout the qualifying races. Unfortunately, it did not work for him this time around as he came out behind Anton Marklund and could only get past his fellow countrymen once he took the joker lap on the final lap of the race.
Kristoffersson crossed the finish line over a second ahead of Ekstrom to clinch his second straight top qualifiers spot.
"We had a good start again, and I could get out first. From there on the car felt much better than it did in Q2. We didn't really have the pace there. But I was not really sure about the pace of Mattias [Ekstrom] because he was very fast in Q2, but it's so nice and your adrenaline is pumping when you have the nice fights with Mattias," Kristoffersson said. "I am really enjoying it!"
After a disappointing first-round for Andreas Bakkerud. The Swede has shown a glimmer of promise with fifth overall finish after Q2, but with a strong drive in Q3, he was able to jump up the order to third overall in the intermediate standings.
Bakkerud's teammate on the other hand has had another tough day filled with mechanical issues despite leading most of his qualifying races only to have it slip away due to issues with his Renault Megane R.S. RX.
KYB Team JC's Robin Larsson has taken the fight to Marklund and the Hansen brothers seeing him in fourth overall ahead of Kevin Hansen (Team Hansen RX) and Krisztian Szabo for GRX SET.
And after a strong performance from Anton Marklund in round 1 (yesterday). The Swede finds himself in seventh with ALL-INKL.COM Muennich Motorsport’s Timo Scheider in eighth after claiming two qualifying heat race wins.
Reigning World RX champion Timmy Hansen finds himself ninth-place struggling with the balance of his car, and not having the best position on the grip to capitalize on the ultimate pace of his Peugeot 208 WRX.
A fast Niclas Gronholm finds himself right down the order after getting stuck in traffic, while GRX Taneco teammate Timur Timerzyanov drops down the order to eleventh overall after a mechanical issue in Q3.
Scheider's team boss Rene Munnich brings up the rear with a strong performance in Q3 Race 2 finishing in second behind Scheider.
Written By - Junaid Samodien
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