WRC and World Rallycross legend Petter Solberg is back at the top of the World RX championship after garnering enough points during the Canada RX which took place on Sunday. Solberg was leading after all four qualifying, claiming all 16 maximum points from the sessions. The Norwegian also won his semi final but made a mistake during the final by opting for wet tires, he finished fifth eventually albeit with the championship lead at hand.
Winning this round was Timmy Hansen from Peugeot Team Hansen, the first win of the season for the young Swedish. Timmy’s luck came along when the leading Timur Timerzyanov got black flagged during the semi-final, after which he (Timmy) was asked to lineup for the finals. Timmy had suffered a broken front-right suspension the previous day, preventing him from entering the finals.
Andreas Bakkerud from Hoonigan Racing Division continues to impress at the World RX, the Ford RS driver claimed P2 and is currently third on the standings with 132 points, behind Mattias Ekstrom and Solberg. Johan Kristoffersson from Volkswagen RX Sweden rounded off the top three from the Canada RX round.
Topi Heikkinen from EKS claimed fourth place in his Audi S1 Supercar, he was also awarded with the coveted Monster Energy Super Charge Award.
VW Polo RX driver Anton Marklund finished sixth behind Solberg. After crossing the finish line, Solberg began to slow down but Marklund’s brakes failed, forcing the Polo RX to drive straight into Solberg’s Citroen rear. Solberg was then rushed to the hospital but was cleared almost immediately and in time for the closing event ceremony.
Speaking about that incident, Solberg said, “That didn’t go to plan in the final for sure. The data shows that Marklund hit me from behind doing around 140kph and I was travelling at about 35 km/h, the car did not fare quite so well. It’s in a massively bad condition now and my team has a huge job to get it ready for France.”
The next round will be in France on September 3.
