Pailler conquers Lohéac to claim maiden Euro RX1 victory on home soil.

PHOTO CREDIT: FIA Rallycross Championships

Fabien Pailler produced a weekend to remember in Lohéac, turning strong pace in difficult conditions into glory on home soil at the penultimate round of the 2026 FIA European Rallycross Championship.

The Frenchman had to work for it, however, with Saturday's qualifying providing a constantly changing challenge as heavy rain, a drying circuit and renewed showers repeatedly altered the balance of the field.

Juha Rytkönen was the man to master the opening conditions. With persistent rain falling across Circuit de Lohéac, the Finn produced a late charge in Q1 to snatch victory from Sébastien Loeb at the final corner and take the fastest time of the session. Pailler also showed his potential in the difficult conditions, finishing third behind Rytkönen and Loeb.

The rain eased for Q2, and the circuit began to dry, bringing a significant improvement in lap times. Johan Kristoffersson took advantage of the changing surface to win the session's headline race, while Rytkönen again finished strongly in second after recovering from an early battle with Loeb. Pailler finished fourth, keeping himself firmly in contention as the qualifying order took shape.

Rytkonen leads Loeb and Pailler on Saturday.
PHOTO CREDIT: FIA Rallycross Championships

Q3 delivered the first major indication that the home driver could challenge for victory. Andreas Bakkerud won his heat after a strong start, while contact involving Kristoffersson and Patrick O'Donovan left the latter with a puncture. Pailler, meanwhile, produced the fastest performance of the session, setting a 2:34.976 to finish ahead of Joni Turpeinen and Bakkerud on the overall Q3 times.

That result moved Pailler into second overall behind Rytkönen at the end of Saturday, with Kristoffersson completing the top three.

It meant the Frenchman had put himself in a strong position for Sunday, despite having had to contend with conditions that had changed dramatically throughout the opening day. Rytkönen carried the overnight advantage, while Kristoffersson, Bakkerud and the remainder of the field remained within striking distance.

Kristoffersson then took control of the overall rankings after Q4 on Sunday morning, setting the benchmark time ahead of teammate Ole Christian Veiby, Loeb, Tamás Kárai and Rokas Baciuška. Bakkerud won his heat but could not match the Swede's overall pace, while Pailler finished fifth.

The eight-time World RX Champion therefore entered the Quarter-Final stages at the head of the field, followed by Rytkönen, Pailler and Bakkerud.

The Quarter-Finals brought another twist as Veiby, who arrived in France third in the championship, failed to progress after another poor launch and a wide moment on the gravel. Rytkönen controlled the second Quarter-Final, while EuroRX Championship debutant Eoin Murray impressed by taking second ahead of Loeb.

Pailler then continued his progress by winning Quarter-Final 3 ahead of Julien Fébreau as rain returned, leaving the drivers to negotiate a slippery circuit on slick tyres. Bakkerud controlled the Quarter-Final 4 after another strong launch, with João Ribeiro and Ollie O'Donovan also progressing.

By the time the Semi-Finals arrived, Pailler had established himself as a genuine threat. Starting alongside Kristoffersson, the Frenchman produced a superb launch and swept around the outside of the KMS Polo to take the lead.

With the home crowd roaring from the grandstands, Pailler remained composed as Kristoffersson stayed within striking distance. Neither driver had taken the joker by lap four, but the Frenchman had built enough of a margin to maintain his advantage through the final phase of the race. He crossed the line ahead of Kristoffersson to secure pole position for the final, while Bakkerud won the second Semi-Final to join them alongside Rytkönen.

Fabien Pailler leads Andreas Bakkerud and Juha Rytkonen in the final.
PHOTO CREDIT: FIA Rallycross Championships

As the pressure increased, Pailler seemed cool, calm and collected, and when it truly mattered in the final, he produced another perfect start. Bakkerud attempted to cover his run into Turn One, but Pailler held his ground and emerged in the lead. Behind them, Kristoffersson and Loeb made light contact, which allowed Rytkönen to move ahead as Pailler began to establish a gap at the front.

Kristoffersson took his joker on lap four in an attempt to escape the traffic, but Pailler, Bakkerud and Rytkönen waited until the final lap. By then, the race was already in Pailler's hands.

He emerged from the joker lap comfortably in front to secure his first Euro RX1 victory, with Bakkerud in second and Rytkönen resisting Kristoffersson's pressure to complete the podium.

After building his weekend through the unpredictable qualifying conditions and then defeating Kristoffersson in the Semi-Final, the Frenchman had delivered the biggest victory of his career in front of his home crowd.

“I feel amazing. Honestly, I cannot believe the pace we have shown and how smoothly everything went this weekend – it is almost unreal. There has been so much effort from the team since Rīga. The team has put so much energy into getting the engine back after Mondello and making sure everything worked perfectly again,” Pailler said. “I am so happy for everybody involved. Winning here is completely crazy. Even in the Semi-Final, when I was ahead of Johan, and the team told me the gap, I could not believe we were able to stay in front. It was also a very clean fight, and he came to congratulate me afterwards. That felt very special.”

While Pailler celebrated his breakthrough victory, Bakkerud leaves France with an even more significant championship reward. The Norwegian's second-place finish moved him into the Euro RX1 championship lead by a single point over Kristoffersson, setting up a dramatic title showdown at the season finale double-header in Lousada on 12-13 September.

“I have lost a championship on a tie before, so one point can sometimes be enough, even though there are still two races to go. It feels amazing to finish second here behind Fabien. The only thing I wanted was to win. I have finished second here five or six times and come so close – this is the race every driver wants to win, so it is bittersweet. But if there was one guy to win today, it was Fabien. They live ten minutes down the road, and standing on the podium listening to the French national anthem even gave me goosebumps. We said at the beginning of the year that we have nothing to lose. We are a brand-new team, so Lousada is going to be exciting, and we are going to give it everything,” Bakkerud said.

Pailler's victory provided a fitting conclusion to the 50th-anniversary Euro RX of France, but the attention now turns to Portugal. 

With Bakkerud holding a one-point lead over Kristoffersson and two races still to run, the 2026 FIA European Rallycross championship will be decided at Lousada with little separating the two title contenders.

THE 2026 FIA EUROPEAN RALLYCROSS (EURO RX1) CHAMPIONSHIP STANDINGS - TOP 10 ONLY:

1. ANDREAS BAKKERUD - 158 pts

2. JOHAN KRISTOFFERSSON - 157

3. OLE CHRISTIAN VEIBY - 119

4. JUHA RYTKONEN - 118

5. JONI TURPEINEN - 91

6. CASPER JANSSON - 60

7. FABIEN PAILLER - 60

8. PATRICK O'DONOVAN - 49

9. NILS VOLLAND - 30

10. ROKAS BACIUSKA - 27

Technical issues cost Kristoffersson place in Lohéac final.

PHOTO CREDIT: Red Bull Content Pool

Despite setting the pace in round three of the FIA World Rallycross Championship at Lohéac, technical problems cost Johan Kristoffersson a place in the final, notwithstanding a herculean effort by the team's mechanics.

The three-time World Champion lead from the front setting the two fastest times in qualifying on course to secure the Top Qualifier position in the Intermediate Rankings. 

In pole position for the first semi-final, Kristoffersson led into turn one and looked set for a race win, but with one lap remaining problems with a driveshaft on the Audi S1 Quattro dropped him down to third. 

Returning to the paddock, it was then discovered that the gearbox was also damaged and needed to be replaced before the final. The mechanics worked hard to get the car ready for the final and after a heroic effort managed to change the gearbox in just 16 minutes, but unfortunately, it was not enough. The car arrived at the pre-grid one minute too late, which meant Kristoffersson was denied a start in the final.

"What a weekend. It started well, we were fast and I felt comfortable in the car. We had a good tyre strategy and in Q4 we tested some new settings to be ready for the semi-finals, which we were very happy with. We chose to start the semi with four new tyres, I had a good start, took the lead and the car felt really, really good. I managed the pace to save the tyres for the final, but on the last lap, at the end of the first corner, the driveshaft broke. I tried to survive through the last lap and managed to finish third," Kristoffersson said.

"Before the final, we needed to change the driveshaft, and because the gearbox was also damaged, the team decided to change it as well. It was very short on time, and it should really be impossible to change a gearbox in that time. But the guys did a fantastic job and managed to change it. But when we reached the starting area, we were seconds too late, and we were not allowed to start in the final.

"Of course it was a real shame. We have not had the margins on our side so far this season and even though the season is long, it is tough in the championship table now. But of course, we will only continue to focus on the future, reload and be ready to fight in Riga."

His team-mate Enzo Ide had a tough weekend, in which he didn’t find the perfect rhythm on track and faced challenges with the tyres (on the abrasive circuit). 

In the semi-finals, he appeared set to progress to the final in third, but he lost time in traffic and just missed out on a place in the final.

"My weekend was really tough. We needed to change the setup a lot to make the car fit me on this track and at first, I didn’t get it where I wanted. I made a few mistakes and it was also a tough challenge not to run out of tyres too fast But, I learned during the weekend and at the end, I was able to adapt my driving to the car and the circuit. In the semi-finals, the car was a rocket but unfortunately, it was not enough for the final," Ide said.

"So I am happy to have learned a lot this weekend with the team and will continue to work moving forwards."

Despite the disappointment of missing out on the final, Kristoffersson has moved up to fourth in the championship standings, with Enzo Ide in seventh.

UNKORRUPTED's Abbring claims fourth at inaugural outing on French soil.

PHOTO CREDIT: UNKORRUPTED

Following on from a podium finish last time out in Sweden, round 3 of the FIA World Rallycross Championship presented Kevin Abbring with unknown challenges at the famous Lohéac track, where the Dutchman finished fourth in his inaugural outing on French soil. 

In his inaugural race weekend in Lohéac, Abbring used Saturday’s free practice session to get a feel for the 1,070m long track before lining up against Enzo Ide, Johan Kristofferson, Timmy Hansen, and O’Donovan for race one of the first qualifier.

A fierce battle over 4 race laps, saw Abbring squeeze by Ide in the very last corner to finish the race in third.

On pole for Q2, the Dutchman won the battle through the first few corners with Scheider to come out in the lead, a position he managed to defend even when rejoining the track following the joker in lap 3. He took the chequered flag with the second-fastest time of Q2 putting him in third overnight behind Kristofferson and Gronholm.

Having set the sixth-fastest time in fourth overall in the third qualifier, Kevin started the final qualifier of the race weekend on pole. He had a good launch, racing to the chequered flag and claiming the fourth-fastest time of the qualifying session.

In the semi-final, Abbring was fourth off the line and jokered on lap 2 finishing the race in 4th-place, missing out on third by one-tenth of a second. 

As a substitute for the final, Kevin Abbring was allowed to enter the final in sixth after Kristoffersson failed to make the pre-grid in third. Launching off the line, he jokered straight away and worked his way up, overtaking Szabo and Scheider in the process finishing in fourth-place. 

"It’s been an important race weekend of learning for us - it was the first time on this track for me, so I had to adjust and quickly get a feel for the car on this awesome French circuit," Abbring said. 

"We changed setups a few times on Saturday morning and were able to optimise performance alongside my growing knowledge of the flow of the track. We had great pace yesterday after getting the feel for the track after Q1.

"We just didn’t have the pace for a podium finish, and it's something we have to review as a team. It was great to be driving in front of so many spectators, a fantastic track and atmosphere and I'm ready to push for the podium at the next event in Latvia."

The Hansen brothers race to third consecutive one-two finish at Lohéac.

PHOTO CREDIT: Red Bull Content Pool

Timmy and Kevin Hansen delivered another commanding one-two finish at the Bretagne World RX of Lohéac, as the ‘Lion’ roared on home soil, and Johan Kristoffersson was once again out of luck.

After a strong start to the season with one-two finishes in Spain and Sweden – with Kevin and Timmy winning one event each – the team kept its unprecedented winning streak going in France with another formation finish at the third round of the World RX season.

Timmy Hansen entered the weekend holding a six-point advantage at the summit of the championship standings – produced a perfect start and a scintillating turn-of-speed in Q4 to top the timesheets and launch himself onto the front row of the starting grid for the first semi-final alongside rival Kristoffersson.

Two fastest times out of four secured Kristoffersson the Top Qualifier honors, but driveshaft failure while leading the semi-final spelled disaster for the three-time world champion, allowing Hansen and Timo Scheider to sneak past on the final lap.

The KYB EKS JC driver narrowly fended off Kevin Abbring for third place but was then unable to take up his spot in the final as his gearbox was also found to be damaged. Despite a herculean effort by his team to replace it, he, unfortunately, did not make it to the grid within the specified time limit (missed by one minute).

That set up a Hansen front-row lockout after Kevin beat Niclas Grönholm at the start of the second semi-final to assume a lead. 

From there the brothers worked together to maximize the team’s result, running side-by-side through the first two turns at the start of the final before Kevin pulled in behind at the turn three hairpin. The brothers then sped away from their pursuers to extend their winning run, with Kevin shadowing Timmy right the way to the chequered flag for a third consecutive one-two.

"What an amazing season we are having! I think this is a time in my career and our lives that we will always remember, with one-two finishes for the team in each of the first three events – it’s just magic," Timmy Hansen said.

"I must say I was lucky in many ways to get the win – it was a shame that Johan [Kristoffersson] had his technical issue – but that’s the way it goes sometimes and today it went my way. Rallycross is about much more than just being quick, and there have been many races in my career where I have had the speed but not come away with the result."

PHOTO CREDIT: Red Bull Content Pool

The second win of the season means, Timmy has extended his championship lead over younger brother Kevin to 10 points, who in turn has a 17-point advantage over nearest challenger Krisztián Szabó in third.

The 2019 World Champion credits the Hansen World RX Team for keeping their winning streak alive.

"Even though I am the guy in the driver’s seat, I have to give credit for this victory to my team. The effort, the energy, the knowledge from our mechanics and engineers made all the difference today. The car wasn’t there in the first few qualifying sessions, not only in terms of raw pace but also the feeling it was giving me. A new set of Öhlins dampers and set-up changes before Q4 made the 208 come alive and made a huge difference," Hansen said.

"At this stage of the season we need to get as many points on the board as possible for the team – the Hyundais found more pace this weekend and Johan was as fast as ever, so when opportunities appear for us to take maximum scores, we have to take them. It's a shame Johan had an issue but this is the game."

Round one winner, Kevin Hansen acknowledges that a 1-2 finish is another great result for the team, but he wasn't able to show his pace throughout qualifying despite having a few chances of winning. 

"This is another great result and it shows what my real pace was throughout the weekend. I feel I was a bit unlucky in not being able to show my pace throughout qualifying as I felt fast and the car was great – but we kept working hard and we got the front by the end," Kevin said

"I’d like to go out and win the final but we had an equal chance to be the leader – pole position goes to the winner of the faster semi-final, and this time around that was Timmy. If it had been the other way around then he would be supporting me. It’s our job to get the team the best result possible and we can only achieve that by working together. And in fairness, I had to be on my maximum pace to keep up with Timmy in the final! Maybe there was a chance or two for me to dive down the inside but ensuring the one-two result is more important.

Now, we need to continue working hard to extract more pace, and our car should suit Riga well, so I’m really excited to go there next and try to win."

Behind the Hansen pairing, Q1 pace-setter Grönholm overcame his slow semi-final start to achieve his first podium of the season and a strong points haul following a difficult season-to-date – with Abbring going well again for fourth, despite having to contend with a slipping clutch that hampered his hopes of a rostrum result on UNKORRUPTED’s home turf.

"I’m a bit disappointed, because we had the opportunity to win today. I felt we were up there with the top guys at last, after a difficult first couple of rounds where our pace has been quite up-and-down," Grönholm said. 

"I really thought we could go all the way, but unfortunately the stall at the start of the semi-final ruined the weekend because you really need a good grid position in the final if you want to win. I did what I could and tried to fight back, and I guess third place from the last row is ok, but I’m here to win. We have the pace in the car – we just need a little bit of luck, and then the results will come."

His GRX-SET team-mate Krisztián Szabó maintained his record of progressing through to the final at every event so far in 2021 securing a fifth-place finish, with Scheider completing the top six.

2021 FIA World RX Championship standings after round 3 (drivers):

Timmy Hansen (Hansen World RX Team) 85 pts

Kevin Hansen (Hansen World RX Team) 75 points

Krizstian Szabo (GRX-SET) 58 pts

Johan Kristoffersson (KYB EKS JC) 57 pts

Kevin Abbring (UNKORRUPTED) 55 pts

Niclas Gronholm (GRX-SET) 51 pts

Enzo Ide (KYB EKS JC) 37 pts

Timo Scheider (ALL-INLK Munnich Motorsport) 31 pts

Juha Rytkonen 25 pts

Rene Munnich (ALL-INLK Munnich Motorsport) 16 pts

[TOP 10 only]

The Hansens aim to keep winning streak alive.

PHOTO CREDIT: Red Bull Content Pool

The Hansen World RX Team looks to continue their winning streak, as the World Championship rolls into northern France this weekend. 

A near-perfect start to the season has seen the Swedish squad become the first team ever to take two consecutive one-two finishes in the FIA World Rallycross Championship. 

Championship leader Timmy Hansen and Kevin Hansen have one win apiece, while the team is already 40 points ahead of its nearest rival in the teams’ standings.

But there’s no time for the team or its drivers to rest on its laurels – less than two weeks since the last round in Sweden, they’re back at the team’s second-home in Lohéac to try and keep the winning streak alive.

PHOTO CREDIT: Red Bull Content Pool

Just six points behind older brother Timmy, Kevin Hansen has one goal in mind this weekend, and it's to reclaim the championship. 

"My goal this weekend is clear – I want to get the lead of the championship back. I feel like the circuit suits me and suits the car but as we saw in Sweden, the grid draw makes such a huge difference. It's the main reason I am not tied on points with Timmy right now. And annoyingly this is the one thing I can’t control," Kevin Hansen said. "So I will cross my fingers, my toes, my arms, my eyes if I have to, everything – my grid positions in qualifying last time were terrible and I don’t want to go through that again!

"It’s best to focus on the positives though and we have lots of those. Our speed at Höljes shows that our car seems to be competitive everywhere on all surfaces. And my confidence is really high – not only from the feeling the 208 has given me so far this year".

The Hansen's have exclusively used French cars at the top level of rallycross – both in World RX and Euro RX before it – since the 1993 season. The team’s 17 World RX victories and three world titles have all been achieved with a Peugeot 208 WRX.

Timmy Hansen currently holds the lap record around Lohéac, having set a 35.843s (laptime) on World RX’s last visit to France in 2019. 

"This is one of my favourite tracks on the calendar – maybe it helps that our car has always performed well here but it’s a nice circuit regardless. It’s really old-school but also quite a fast track – there are not many technical corners on the lap aside from a final couple of turns, where lacking precision with your inputs costs a lot of lap time," Timmy Hansen said.

The 2019 World Champion admits that the real difference this year is reliability and consistency. 

"It is easy to focus on how fast each team and driver is but what has really made a difference so far this year is reliability and consistency. It’s important we don’t lose sight of that," he said. "Getting to the finish line is not always a guarantee but everyone in the team has done a superb job of making sure we’ve finished every race without problems so far this season. I believe that will end up being a key factor when we get to the end of the season.

"I am the reigning winner here so of course, the target has to be to go out and do the same thing again. Let’s wait and see what happens but I’m optimistic that I will be competitive this weekend."

O'Donovan and Knapick joins 10-car field for World RX of France.

PHOTO CREDIT: Red Bull Content Pool

The entry lists for the FIA World Rallycross Championship at Lohéac on 3-5 September have been released, setting the stage for a thrilling weekend on French soil.

Following the Barcelona curtain-raiser last month and this weekend’s outing at Höljes, the World Championship title fight will be heating up by the time drivers and teams arrive in France for round three of the 2021 season – and aside from the usual suspects, the return of ALL-INKL.COM Muennich Motorsport’s Timo Scheider is sure to mix up the order after the pace the German showed in Catalunya.

Former British Rallycross Champion and Euro RX podium-finisher Ollie O’Donovan will return after almost four years away. He will drive his Ford Fiesta Supercar.