Solberg wins round 2 of WRX at Hockenheim

Picture Courtesy: www.rallycrossrx.com

Former WRC and reigning WRX champion, Petter Solberg took victory at the first ever World RX of Hockenheim for the SDRX team. Ford Olsberg MSE driver Reinis Nitiss finished 2^nd while Timmy Hansen took 3^rd for Team Peugeot-Hansen.

An action packed weekend at Hockenheim saw 75,000 people attending the first round of the DTM championship, round 1 of the TT Cup and the second round of the WRX championship most excited for the WRX races at the Hockenheimring. As cars collided with each other, some hit barriers and most notably Timur Timerzyanov hitting the tyre wall who ended up rolling the car completely only to land of all 4 wheel and continuing to finish his final heat for the weekend (Heat 4) left the crowd cheering and a day to remember for time to come.

The Supercar Final saw Petter Solberg, who had dominated the whole weekend stand in pole alongside Nitiss with Timmy Hansen, Toomas Heikkinen, Robin Larsson and Andreas Bakkerud line up on the grid. When the lights went out, Solberg slingshot in the lead to the first corner with Nitiss following closely behind, Timmy Hansen from the back got a brilliant start and jumped into 3^rd to close the door on Heikkinen. As Solberg drove aggressively and brilliant without any errors, the reigning champion went on to win the race without a challenge from any of the other drivers. The battle for 2^nd and 3 was all down to the joker lap between Nitiss, Hansen, Heikkinen and Larsson who were fighting for 2^nd and 3^rd, but Nitiss and Hansen respectively held their position after all drivers had jokered. Larsson at the final corner, on the final 6^th lap of the race, fighting with Heikkinen, went slightly overzealous and contacted Heikkinen’s VW Polo supercar, but while Heikkinen went on to finish in 4^th place, Larsson failed to cross the finish line after spinning out on the final corner and getting beached in the gravel to finish 5th. Andreas Bakkerud retired on the 3^rd lap with a transmission problem to finish 6^th in the final.

Solberg was also awarded the Monster Energy Super Charge Award for his rapid start off the line. Solberg stated “I love big fights and tough competitions and that’s why I love rallycross.”