The FIA World Rallycross returned this week and the venue for this round six was Hojes, Sweden. The weather was comparable to a British summer which made for unpredictable conditions throughout the weekend, making it difficult for drivers to find their best set up.
However it wasn't just the conditions that played havoc, a few drivers hit problems in qualifying, current champion Petter Solberg found himself sitting in 15th after the second round of qualifying but was able to make a recovery to finish qualifying and finished fourth. Current championship leader Mattias Ekstrom also had problems as his Audi S1 had an electronic failure in the first round of qualifying.
Jeanney and Bakkerud suffered punctures which threatened their chances to make it in to the top 12. Johan Kristoffersson had no such problem in his VW Polo and he sat at the top of the qualifying pile overnight. Despite not winning his races in Q3 and Q4 the Swede was able to remain the fastest driver overall in the qualifying rounds.
Semi-final one has a mouth watering lineup of Kristoffersson, Petter Solberg, Mattias Ekstrom, Toomas Heikkinen, Timmy Hansen and Davy Jeanney. Home advantage seemed to prove vital here as Hansen, Kristoffersson and Ekkstrom finished in the top three to go through to the final. This meant there was no room for current champion Solberg who finished fourth and had to accept his weekend was finished.
The second semi-final was made up of Andrea Bakkerud, Sebastion Loeb, Robin Larsson, Janis Baumanis, Niclas Gronholm and Anton Marklund. Ken Block just missed out on the semi-finals but he was the first reserve in case someone dropped out with technical difficulties. Bakkerud put in another impressive drive to win the round with Sebastian Loeb and Anton Marklund finishing second and third respectively.
Bakkerud has a decent start in his Focus RS RX in the final but it was Sebastian Loeb who got in front from the start in his Peugeot 208, Bakkerud then dived into the joker lap where Kristoffersson followed. Timmy Hansen took the lead in the first lap and had his teammate Loeb right behind him, that was until Marklund overtook the Frenchman to slot into second.
Although Bakkerud had jokered early he was able to catch up with the train of cars pretty quickly and overtook Ekstrom as he took his joker lap. Bakkerud then made his way to third place behind the two Peugeot Hansen cars before overtaking them when they took they jokered on the last lap. Bakkerud held his nerve to get his second win in as many races but it went wrong for Timmy Hansen on last corner after handbrake fault, meaning Loeb was able to leapfrog him into second place.
Marklund finished fourth whilst Kristoffersson and championship leader Mattias Ekstrom finished fifth and sixth respectively. There may have been four Swedes in the final but only one of them made it to the podium so unlike the last round in Norway, there was no home win. Ekstrom still sits on top of the championship table with 142 points but Petter Solberg is breathing down his neck with 137 and thanks to consecutive wins Andreas Bakkerud sits in third with 110 points.