Johan Kristoffersson back in top three in the World Rallycross Championship
Johan Kristoffersson, Volkswagen Team Sweden, is back in the World Rallycross Championship’s desired top three. He climbed to third in the overall standings after finishing fourth in his VW Polo in front of 75 000 spectators in France.
September 07, 2015
Johan Kristoffersson, Volkswagen Team Sweden, is back in the World Rallycross Championship’s desired top three. He climbed to third in the overall standings after finishing fourth in his VW Polo in front of 75 000 spectators in France.
“Of course it would have been fun to be on the podium, but we took a big step forward here in France and I’m really pleased with the entire team’s effort” said a happy Johan after crossing the finish line in the ninth championship round.
Johan was in the top fight from start at the French World RX round. In Saturday’s first two qualifying heats, he finished third and seventh, which gave him a fourth place overall. Sunday did not start quite as good (he set a 15th fastest time in the third heat), but when the battle heated up, Johan showed what he is made of. In the fourth heat, he was the quickest of all drivers in the line-up.“We made many changes on the car this weekend and it paid off. Although my fourth qualifying heat was good, it was not perfect. I lost all turbo pressure with one lap to go.”
The issue appeared again in the semi-finals and stopped Johan from challenging the championship leader Petter Solberg for the victory. But he still got a solid second place and advanced to the final.
“My mechanics had twelve minutes to fix the problem before the final. They managed to succeed, which was a real accomplishment considering that the parts were really hot as I was in the second semi-final.”
Johan’s Polo ran perfectly again in the final, but despite a great start, he couldn’t fight the way he had hoped for from the second row. Instead, he found himself in a battle with Robin Larsson for third place through the initial corners. At first it looked like Johan would beat him, but after a small mistake in a bumpy section, Larsson passed him.
Shortly after that, Larsson had to retire with technical problems, but unfortunately it did not help Johan this time. The mistake cost him too much time, something that the Frenchman Jean-Baptiste Dubourg took advantage of.
“It is not the end of the world that we did not get to finish on the podium. We have so many positive things to take with us from this weekend” said Johan and mentioned the climb in the championship standings, the second fastest lap time and the second fastest time in the qualifying heats.
“We had good speed this weekend and that bodes well for the future in the championship as there are more tracks of this character that awaits us.”
The next World RX round takes place in Barcelona, Spain, in just a couple of weeks.