Ekstrom wins in Sweden, as Hansen get demoted to 2nd

Mattias Ekstrom has won the 6^th round of the FIA World RX championship at Holjes in Sweden for EKSRX team. Timmy Hansen for Team Peugeot Hansen, despite crossing the finish line ahead of Eksrtom, finished 2^nd as he was relegated after the race following a stewards inquiry.

The 6 lap RX Supercar Final saw Andreas Bakkerud and Timmy Hansen on row 1, Mattias Ekstrom and Reinis Nitiss on row 2 and Petter Solberg and Topi Heikkinen on row 3. At the start all 6 drivers got away clean as Ekstrom with Solberg, who has barely managed to make in into the Final, dived into the joker on the first lap. Bakkerud leading the rest of the pack on the standard lap was under pressure with Hansen literally only inches behind Bakkerud’s Fiesta for the first 3 laps of the race. Hansen on lap 4 managed to get ahead of Bakkerud who then jokered on lap 5.

Ekstrom had managed to climb up to 2^nd place after Bakkerud, Nitiss and Heikkinen jokered. On the final lap, reigning champion Solberg found himself in the gravel stuck and out of the race. While Hansen was the only driver left to joker, he dived in on the final lap which gave Marrias Ekstrom the lead. Ekstrom had a massive gap ahead of Hansen and everyone thought Ekstrom had it in the bag. Miraculously, Hansen closed the gap on Ekstrom to challenge him on the final corner running Ekstrom wide on the final hairpin to take the lead and across the finish line ahead of Eksrtom to take the win.

However the celebrations were cut short for Timmy Hansen and his team, as after the race the stewards relegated Hansen to 2^nd because Hansen has exceeded track limits during his move on Ekstrom on the final corner. Despite the ceremony and the champagne showers with Hansen celebrating his victory on the podium, Ekstrom was declared the undisputed winner after the post race scrutiny by the officials.

Bakkerud managed to bring his Ford Olsberg MSE Fiesta in 3^rd for the final podium spot. Topi Heikkinen finished 4^th with Nitiss in 5^th.

The Holjes RX 2015 will be a weekend to forget for defending champion Petter Solberg as the Norwegian barely managed to make it into the Final. Despite the retirement from Solberg, he still remains on top of the championship leaderboard. In all the previous rounds Solberg’s worst finish had been 2^nd place. Holjes on the other hand was the worst finish of his reason after he found himself pulling his Citroen out of the gravel at the end of the afternoon.

Round 7 of the FIA World RX 2015 season will take place across the Atlantic in Canada on August 8.