GRX Taneco’s Niclas Gronholm took the quickest time in Q2 at the Neste World RX of Latvia, round nine of the FIA World Rallycross Championship but it’s GC Kompetition’s Rokas Baciuska who is TQ (top qualifier) overnight.

Finland’s Gronholm passed Monster Energy RX Cartel’s Liam Doran for a race win in Q2 and was the quickest in the session. He is P2 on day one, with GCK’s Anton Marklund, who finished ahead of Baciuska in their Q2 race, in P3.

“The day was quite good. It’s really amazing when there are so many people from Lithuania and Latvia here to support us. I’m really happy to be here again P1 overnight, and together with my team mate, GCK is P1 and P3, it’s amazing. Last year Anton tested here and did a good setup for the car. Tomorrow rain is coming and I hope the Megane will also work well, but it’s another day so it’s difficult to speak about that now. All of these drivers have a lot of experience, it’s unbelievable that I’m in this position,” said Baciuska.

Rain is expected in Latvia for Sunday’s action and Gronholm thinks he has more speed than was shown on day one. “I had a bad launch in Q1, then took some hits in turn one and two, so it was difficult to do anything better. I felt the driving was okay, the car wasn’t perfect but we fixed it for Q2 and I had quite a clean run to get the undercut in the end on Liam. I could have been faster I think, but anyway it was enough.”

Doran was P3 in Q2 and is P6 overnight, with RX Cartel team mate Andreas Bakkerud in P4, in front of championship rival, Team Hansen MJP’s Kevin Hansen, in P5. Sweden’s Robin Larsson and Timmy Hansen clashed in turn 2 of Q2, Hansen hitting the wall and retiring. Following the race, Larsson was disqualified for “Causing a collision in T2 with #21 (Hansen) and #123 (Krisztian Szabo)”. After the random draw, the slowest drivers from Q2 will start in Race 1 of Q3 tomorrow morning.

In Euro RX Supercar Norway’s Thomas Bryntesson is TQ after Q2, with Sweden’s Sebastian Eriksson P2 and France Jean-Baptiste Dubourg P3. Russia’s Aydar Nuriev is P1 in Euro RX Super1600, with Switzerland’s Yuri Belevskiy P2 and Russia’s Arthur Egorov P3.

Find full Latvia RX results here.