World RX – Kristoffersson ends World RX season in style at the Nürburgring
Johan Kristoffersson ended the 2022 FIA World Rallycross Championship in style at the Nürburgring by winning for an eighth time, completing a truly magnificent year in which he was crowned World RX champion for a fifth time.
He began the final round of the series in Germany by setting fastest time in the single-lap SuperPole shootout, a stunning eight tenths-of-a-second faster than his nearest rival. He went on to win two (out of three) heats, a progression race and a semi-final in his Volkswagen RX1e.
After exiting a hectic first few corners of the final in the lead, Kristoffersson edged away from his pursuers to take the chequered flag more than a second-and-a-half clear to cement the 35th success of his glittering World RX career.
“It was a very good weekend,” acknowledged the Kristoffersson Motorsport star.
“This is a huge team effort and the KMS guys and girls have delivered a perfect car all year. Every win we’ve achieved has been for our loyal partners and everybody involved in this project who put the whole package together from zero. When they build a car I can trust and that gives me the confidence to push, I can simply focus on doing my job.”
Kevin Hansen followed Kristoffersson across the line, but he later lost his second-place finish when he was disqualified from the final due to a technical infringement.
That gifted Niclas Grönholm the runner-up spoils, having only made it into the final when Construction Equipment Dealer Team stablemate Klara Andersson was withdrawn to allow her team-mate to fight for a top three position in the overall standings.
Timmy Hansen, who for much of the weekend was Kristoffersson’s closest competitor, wound up third after coming off worst in the three-way first corner shuffle, while Ole Christian Veiby finished fourth.
Andersson was unfortunate to be denied her place in the final following her finest display in World RX to-date, which included her first World RX race win in heat three.
Volkswagen Dealerteam BAUHAUS rookie Gustav Bergström exited proceedings at the semi-final stage, as did Euro RX1 champion Anton Marklund, who was making his electric racing debut in the Muennich Motorsport’s SEAT Ibiza RX1e, and Guerlain Chicherit.
Chicherit gave the Lancia Delta Evo-e-RX a very encouraging debut but contact with a wall in heat one put him out for the rest of Saturday. The Frenchman returned to action on Sunday where he looked set to reach the final before a heavy kerb strike on the penultimate lap of his semi-final broke the car’s front suspension.
In the last round of the 2022 FIA European Rallycross Championship’s Euro RX3 campaign, Kobe Pauwels fought back from a slow start to the weekend to prevail at the end of a dramatic final. Saturday pace-setter Jan Černý got a lightning launch from the middle of the grid to grab the initial lead, but an early joker strategy brought Pauwels back into play.
When Černý subsequently took his own joker on lap three, he re-joined alongside his arch-rival, but two-into-one was never going to work and contact with the tyre wall tore the right-front wheel from the Czech driver’s Škoda Citigo. Pauwels emerged unscathed to secure a fourth triumph from five rounds this year, ahead of hugely impressive newcomer Jens Hvaal and series sophomore Damian Litwinowicz, who duly sealed second in the title table.
FINAL RESULT: WORLD RX – ROUND 10
1. Johan KRISTOFFERSSON (SWE) Kristoffersson Motorsport 5 laps
2. Niclas GRÖNHOLM (FIN) Construction Equipment Dealer Team + 2.275s
3. Timmy HANSEN (SWE) Hansen World RX Team + 2.852s
4. Ole Christian VEIBY (NOR) Kristoffersson Motorsport + 4.709s
DSQ. Kevin HANSEN (SWE) Hansen World RX Team