Johan Kristoffersson delivered the perfect weekend at World RX of Norway. He won everything. Round five was about one team: PSRX Volkswagen Sweden; one car: Volkswagen Polo R Supercar and one man: Johan. The superstar Swede’s domination of Hell moves him further clear at the top of the drivers’ standings. Repeating his Norwegian win of 12 months ago, Johan now leads his nearest rival by 31 points.
Not only was this Kristoffersson’s fourth win from five rounds, but also PSRX Volkswagen Sweden’s third double podium of the season with local hero Petter Solberg finishing third in the sister Polo R Supercar.
More than 24,000 fans turned out to cheer the PSRX Volkswagen Sweden team on and the reigning champions didn’t disappoint. Kristoffersson led from the start of the final, while Solberg rocketed into second place. His lightening reactions were rewarded with the Monster Supercharger Award. He only lost out late in the final when he slipped from second to third. Audi’s Mattias Ekstrom took second place.
Johan Kristoffersson delivered the perfect weekend at World RX of Norway
Drama at the start but it’s @Petter_Solberg that picks up the @MonsterEnergy Supercharge Award for quickest reaction at the lights!#WorldRX #HellRX #MonsterEnergy pic.twitter.com/d79Kw2SrBW
— FIA World Rallycross (@FIAWorldRX) June 10, 2018
CONGRATULATIONS @JohanKMS88! It’s a perfect weekend for Kristofferson who wins the Team Verksted World RX of Norway, winning every session in the process! pic.twitter.com/AdFKtNjbwO
— FIA World Rallycross (@FIAWorldRX) June 10, 2018
Ekstrom fought back from a difficult Sunday morning where he was given a five-second penalty in Q3 and then retired in Q4 to finish on the podium. “Congratulations to Johan and his crew, they had a really good weekend,” said Audi S1 driver Ekstrom. “Two really rocket starts made the difference for me today and I managed to finish second in the semi and in the final. It’s always nice to get a trophy.”
Solberg secured the Monster Energy Supercharge Award for having the fastest reaction time at the start of the final
“This is very good. If you look at the last few years for me here, I am very, very pleased. It was a tough weekend, I tried to use all my tyres I could early to make sure I was coming into the semis in a good position and it’s a good feeling.”
“The speed difference [to winning] is not much but it’s so many things through a weekend that’s got to fit in really well. Only two people have done the clean sweep now, and on the same track, but Holjes next time will be a tough one for everybody.”
Fourth was Team Peugeot Total’s Kevin Hansen, the 2016 FIA European Rallycross Champion making it into the final by qualifying fourth in the Intermediate Classification and being third in semi-final two.
Peugeot’s Timmy Hansen and EKS’ Andreas Bakkerud lost time at the first corner of the final after contact and finished fifth and sixth respectively.
France’s Sebastien Loeb just missed out on a place in the final
He finished fourth in semi-final one ahead of Olsbergs MSE’s Robin Larsson and Sweden’s Anton Marklund in a hotly-contested race. GRX Taneco’s Niclas Gronholm finished fourth in semi-final two in an equally close race with the second OMSE Ford Fiesta driven by Kevin Eriksson and Team STARD’s Janis Baumanis fifth and sixth.
It was a challenging weekend for GC Kompetition, but both Jerome Grosset-Janin and Guerlain Chicherit scored World RX Championship points. Former Formula 1 driver and double Le Mans winner Alex Wurz made his World RX debut in Norway with MJP Racing Team Austria and improved with every session to finish 18th.
