Race report

World Rallycross Bikernieki

Latvia WRX: Ekstrom beats Kristoffersson to close points gap

In a battle between two multi-discipline experts, Mattias Ekstrom came out on top to win the second instalment of World Rallycross’ Latvian double-header, his second win of the campaign.

Hal Ridge

Edited: Sep 21, 2020, 4:21 PM

Copy link

Share on Viber

Add as a preferred source

Ekstrom set a pair of fastest times in qualifying to top the Intermediate Classification, then won semi-final one ahead of KYB Team JC teammate Robin Larsson to secure pole for the final. He then controlled the main event from the front to net victory, and close the points gap to Johan Kristoffersson.

Series leader Kristoffersson had used a superior tyre strategy on Saturday, the first of the two Latvian rounds to claim victory, but he didn’t set a single fastest time through qualifying in round six on Sunday and ended up second to Ekstrom in the overall qualifying order.

Kristoffersson won semi-final two to join Ekstrom on the front row of the final, and despite broken front bodywork on the Volkswagen Polo showing just how close he’d been to the eventual winner’s Audi in the opening corners, Kristoffersson was unable to better Ekstrom’s pace by anything more than a few hundredths of a second at any point during the encounter.

Kristoffersson took his joker on lap five in a bid to leapfrog Ekstrom, but the double-DTM champion had done enough to take the win after he too took his compulsory extra route on the final lap.

Larsson meanwhile claimed his first World RX podium since the opening round of the 2016 campaign in Portugal, and made it a maiden double-rostrum appearance for the KYB Team JC squad.

A lap three joker in the final kept Larsson just ahead of reigning champion Timmy Hansen on track, where he kept the door shut in the final corner at the joker merge to ensure there was no way through for Hansen’s Peugeot 208.

Larsson had fended off pressure from a fast-starting Niclas Gronholm in the opening stages of the race, Gronholm later hassling Kristoffersson when the Swede took his joker, but Gronholm dropped to fifth at the finish, behind Hansen in fourth, when the Finn took his joker on the final tour.

Kevin Hansen finished sixth. The Swede was elevated into the final when Timo Scheider, who had initially finished in the top three of his semi-final, was disqualified from the race for contact with Andreas Bakkerud.

The incident, which forced Bakkerud into the wall on the inside of the turn-four breaking ahead, ripped the left-front corner off the Norwegian’s Renault Megane and he retired from the race on the spot.

We want your opinion!

What would you like to see on Motorsport.com?

Take our 5 minute survey.

- The Motorsport.com Team

Read and post comments

Share Or Save This Story

Copy link

Share on Viber

Previous article Conway “gutted” over #7 Toyota’s latest Le Mans agony

Next article Quartararo didn't get track limits warning before penalty

Top Comments

There are no comments at the moment. Would you like to write one?

View More & Comment

Latest news

"It's horribly painful" - Williams drops 2026 car upgrades to benefit 2027

Formula 1

F1 Formula 1

Sao Paulo GP

29 min

"It's horribly painful" - Williams drops 2026 car upgrades to benefit 2027

The lowdown on this year’s FIA F3 title protagonists

FIA F3

The lowdown on this year’s FIA F3 title protagonists

Iker Lecuona felt significant differences between Ducati's GP25 and GP26

MotoGP

MGP MotoGP

Qatar GP

1 h

Iker Lecuona felt significant differences between Ducati's GP25 and GP26

The Kimi Antonelli you don't know: Inside the Mercedes garage with F1's new world champion

Formula 1

F1 Formula 1

Mexican GP

2 h

The Kimi Antonelli you don't know: Inside the Mercedes garage with F1's new world champion

Subscribe and access Motorsport.com with your ad-blocker.

From Formula 1 to MotoGP we report straight from the paddock because we love our sport, just like you. In order to keep delivering our expert journalism, our website uses advertising. Still, we want to give you the opportunity to enjoy an ad-free and tracker-free website and to continue using your adblocker.

You have 2 options:

Become a subscriber.
Disable your adblocker.

Subscribe now Already subscribed? Sign in here

Already disabled your adblocker?
Reload page

Manage Alerts