Team Peugeot Total’s Sebastien Loeb took first blood in the battle to finish second in the 2018 FIA World Rallycross Championship by setting the quickest time in Q1 at the World RX of South Africa.

France’s Loeb won Q1 Race Three to set the quickest time and even though his Team Peugeot Total team mate Timmy Hansen challenged the top of the Q1 times when he led Race Four, the Swede finished just 0.024 seconds behind in second. Third was EKS Audi Sport’s Andreas Bakkerud, who was second to Hansen in Race Four and PSRX Volkswagen Sweden’s Petter Solberg won Q1 Race Two and was fourth. 

But, there was drama when two-time FIA World RX Drivers’ Champion Johan Kristoffersson had a spin in Q1 Race Three on the second lap, after being passed by Germany’s Timo Scheider in turn one as Loeb took the hole shot. Kristoffersson finished the race but was slowed by a problem. Scheider jumped the start and had to take two joker laps as penalty. Latvia’s Janis Baumanis won the first race of the weekend in Q1 and was fifth quickest. EKS’ Mattias Ekstrom beat Olsbergs MSE’s Kevin Eriksson in a lap one battle for position and was sixth quickest.

In the seventh and final round of the RX2 International Series, Norway’s Ben-Philip Gundersen was quickest in Q1, Finland’s Sami-Matti Trogen was second and Belgium’s Guillaume De-Ridder was third.