PSRX Volkswagen Sweden’s Johan Kristoffersson just pipped Team Peugeot Total’s Sebastien Loeb to quickest time in Q1 at the World RX of Latvia, round nine of the FIA World Rallycross Championship.

Loeb claimed Q1 race one with a start-to-finish victory and sat at the top of the Q1 results until race five, when Kristoffersson drove his Volkswagen Polo R to the quickest time by just 0.009 seconds. EKS Audi Sport’s Mattias Ekstrom also took the lead of his race at the first corner and won in front of PSRX’s Petter Solberg after responding to Solberg’s lap two joker and he was third quickest, in front of Solberg in fourth. Ekstrom’s EKS team mates Andreas Bakkerud and Nico Muller were sixth and seventh quickest in Q1, Muller taking the lead of his race on lap one before he was overtaken by Peugeot’s Timmy Hansen on lap two, Hansen taking the fifth best time.

There was a turn one squeeze in race five which included GRX Taneco’s Niclas Gronholm on the inside, Kristoffersson, GC Kompetition’s Liam Doran and Peugeot’s Kevin Hansen. Gronholm was forced wide in turn two before contact with Doran after Hansen was forced wide in turn one and dropped to fifth in the race. Doran held into second in the race until he took a lap four joker, even with damaged rear suspension but it was Gronholm who finised second to Kristoffersson to be eighth quickest.

The three title contenders in the FIA European Rallycross Championship for Supercar took the top three places in Q1. Sweden’s Anton Marklund was quickest with France’s Cyril Raymond second and Latvia’s Reinis Nitiss third.

Find full Latvia RX here.