So after a hiatus the FIA World Rallycross returned, this time at the Grand Prix de Trois-Rivieres circuit in Canada. It was another weekend of of unpredictable action which produced a final no-one could have called.
The qualifying saw a fair amount of bumps, spins and technical problems - the stuff that makes World RX so great. Petter Solberg may have had a clean sweep if it wasn't for the third round that saw the Norwegian bumped in the first corner by Russian driver Timur Timerzyanov who hit the brakes late causing his Fiesta ST to collide with the back of Solberg's Citroen. The Russian got nothing out of it though as he and Solberg completed the back end of the grid in their race.
In fact Timerzyanov's aggressive style continued in the semi-final where it appeared he bumped the side of Toomas Heikkinen towards the end of the semi-final two. This then saw him disqualified from the final which made the Russian a very unhappy bunny indeed. He claimed that he did not touch Heikkinen's Audi and that his front bumper was broken from an earlier incident in the race.
Bakkerud had a decent weekend in his Focus RS RX but sadly Block hit problems once more
Ken's Focus puts another block on progress
Ken Block put a good shift in the last round of qualifying and saw himself in semi-final one but sadly hit problems AGAIN after his suspension broke, meaning he wasn't in contention for the final. I really want to see Block do well and I'm really feel for him, he's had so much trouble this season with the Focus RS RX. One man who had no problems however was Solberg who had no Timerzyanov to worry about, meaning he was able to cruise to a very comfortable win in the same semi-final.
Championship leader Mattias Ekstrom could not do enough to make the final though so his narrow lead at the top was definitely under threat and it appeared Solberg was on course to get a comfortable win in the final. In fact I would have put my car on Solberg to win but there was one man who didn't read the script of how the final was meant to be played out. That was Swedish driver Timmy Hansen who was given in a place in the final following the disqualification of Timerzyanov.
Hansen makes good on his chance
Toomas Heikkinen made a great start to the final in his Audi S1 and quickly grabbed the lead but then lost in the second lap after he lost speed in the first corner. This opened the door up for Andreas Bakkerud who duly took the opportunity to get in to first place. By this point Solberg has been dumped to the back and was pretty much out of the race.
Bakkerud looked to be losing a bit of speed mid race and there looked like there may have been a problem with the car. This allowed Johan Kristoffersson to really close the gap and put the Norwegien under pressure. Bakkerud left it late to joker and lost a bit of speed in doing so which allowed Timmy Hansen, the man called up at late notice, to slip in front to take the lead and the win. Bakkerud took second place whilst Johan Kristoffersson took the last podium space. Behind him was Toomas Heikinen, Petter Solberg and Anton Marklund.
It was a result that no-one could have predicted, providing the rapidly growing sport with a great advert of why Rallycross is one of the most exciting forms of motorsport in the world. Despite Solberg's fifth place, he is on the top of the table with 161 point with Ekstrom dropping down to seconds with a grand total of 157 points. Andreas Bakkerud's podium place means that keeps his third place standing with 132 points.