Sweden’s Johan Kristoffersson won Q2 in the eighth round of the FIA World Rallycross Championship presented at Trois-Rivieres to be TQ (top qualifier) on Saturday evening. Kristoffersson set a faster time than his PSRX Volkswagen Sweden team mate Petter Solberg in Q2. The Norwegian is third at the end of day one, sandwiching EKS’s Topi Heikkinen in second position.

Solberg was second by winning his race, Mattias Ekstrom and Heikkinen finishing behind Kristoffersson to be third and sixth. America’s Ken Block was fourth in Q2 and Sweden’s Kevin Eriksson was sixth. Block’s Hoonigan Racing Division team mate Andreas Bakkerud spun on lap one of his Q2 race with technical problems and then had contact with France’s Sebastien Loeb. 

“I have to say a big thanks to the team. We haven’t been the quickest in the wet so far this season but during the break since Holjes we have managed to test twice in the wet and improve a lot,” said World RX Championship leader Kristoffersson. “It was drying up towards the end of Q1, I was a bit scared I would be too slow but in the end Topi was only a little bit quicker, so I was very happy with that. In Q2 I got a great launch and from there I was just pushing as much as I could trying to beat Petter and in the end it worked out, it was a great day for us. The conditions were not so bad during the qualifying races but during the second outing in the second practice it was just survival. It was so wet in the gravel parts. The organisers did a good job with the track before Q1 and Q2, so the conditions were not so bad.”