World RX - Heikkinen heads points leader Kristoffersson
2017 World RX of Latvia - Leg One Report
Finland’s Topi Heikkinen was the quickest driver in Q2 at the World RX of Latvia, round ten of the FIA World Rallycross Championship and is TQ (top qualifier) at the end of Saturday’s action.
EKS’s Heikkinen won Q2 race four as rain hit the Bikernieki National Sports Base circuit. Norway’s Andreas Bakkerud just beat France’s Sebastien Loeb to the race win race three in a dash to the finish line and was second quickest with Loeb third overall. Q1 winner Johan Kristoffersson finished race four behind Heikkinen and Mattias Ekstrom. Reigning World RX Champion Ekstrom was fourth, Sweden’s Timmy Hansen was fifth and Kristoffersson set sixth overall time.
“It was a really good day for us, especially in Q2 when we won,” said Heikkinen. “We’ve been making really good starts and I had a really good car on the track. It was really nice to drive and I’m really thankful to the team that they gave me that kind of car. We still have a long way to go, but I feel that we have a really good car for this track and all four drivers have done a really good job so I think we have a chance tomorrow. We need to do our best, I would prefer it to be wet tomorrow, it seems like our car is a bit better in the wet but let’s see.”
America’s Ken Block had a first corner spin but Norway’s Petter Solberg had even bigger problems, breaking his Volkswagen Polo’s left rear suspension during the race and was 17th. MJP Racing Team Austria were unable to start with Timo Schieder’s car after the fire damage caused in Q1. The team are working to repair it in time for Q3 tomorrow morning.
Find full Latvia RX results can be found at the following: http://www.fiaworldrallycross.com/result/lva/2017