GRX Taneco’s Niclas Gronholm won Q2 race 2 at the World RX of Canada, round seven of the FIA World Rallycross Championship at Trois-Rivieres to win the session and be overnight TQ (top qualifier).

Gronholm won his Q2 race against GC Kompetition’s Guerlain Chicherit to take the quickest time in front of the French driver. In P3, by winning race 4, was Chicherit’s GCK team mate Rokas Baciuska.

“Today has been quite okay. I’ve done quite bad launches to be honest and always had to make my way up the order. In Q1 it wasn’t really perfect but I Q2 it was okay and had a clean track for most of the race and had a good time, so happy about the day,” Gronholm said. 

“We have a good car for this track, on the gravel it’s really good, then we need to make some compromises on the tarmac but it’s been good so far.”

Monster Energy RX Cartel’s Andreas Bakkerud finished the first race in the session in P2 behind GCK’s Anton Marklund, was P8 but is P2 in the Intermediate Classification as Chicherit made it into the top three. 

“It’s been a challenging day. This is my sixth time at Trois-Rivieres. It’s a great place and the Canadian fans are really cool," Bakkerud said.  “With the change of grid order over the past few races, its been difficult. I am pleased so far - P1 in Q1 and P7 in Q2 is good. I have to give it to Niclas (Gronholm) though. He has missed two races and for him and the GRX team to achieve what they have since he came back and also here, it’s pretty impressive.”

Chicherit was pleased with his day's work. “I have had to learn a new sport, learn how to drive these crazy cars and fight with these great drivers, I am pretty happy with how it went today. The car is good here and we can be competitive. I feel that I have made a lot of mistakes in trying to learn this type of racing but I think it’s coming good for me now.”

Fourth in Q2 was ALL-INKL.COM Muennich Motorsport’s Timo Scheider, Team STARD’s Janis Baumanis was P5 and Marklund was P6. Team Hansen MJP’s Timmy Hansen had a spin and was only P14 and Hansen MJP’s Kevin Hansen took a five second penalty for exceeding track limits and was P11.

Part of an RX Cartel one-two in Q1, Great Britain’s Liam Doran passed Anton Marklund for the lead of Q2 race one but was slowed by an issue and was P15. Team STARD’s Jani Paasonen was a DNF after a spin and broken rear suspension on his Ford Fiesta.

Full results from World RX of Canada here.