Lithuania’s Rokas Baciuska took first blood at the World RX of Latvia, round nine of the World Rallycross Championship with the quickest time in Q1.
Lining up in the last race of Q1, GCK Kompetition’s Baciuska was P3 on lap one, but took an early joker lap, got his head down and overtook Drivers’ Championship leader Andreas Bakkerud for the race win on lap 4.
Monster Energy RX Cartel’s Bakkerud was P2 in the Q1 just ahead of Sweden’s Kevin Hansen. The Team Hansen MJP driver had taken the best start from P5 on the grid in race 2 and held the quickest time until the last race.
He was P3 overall, with GC Kompetition’s Anton Marklund and Guerlain Chicherit P4 and P5 to join team mate Baciuska at the top of the list.
FIA European Rallycross Champion Robin Larsson raced hard with Bakkerud and then Team Hansen MJP’s Timmy Hansen in race 4 and end up P5, with Timmy Hansen P7 and RX Cartel’s Liam Doran in P8.
GRX Taneco’s Niclas Gronholm was last out at turn one of race 2 in the Hyundai i20 from pole position, but recovered to be P9 and best of the GRX cars as Latvia’s Reinis Nitiss was held up in turn one and Russia’s Timur Timerzyanov rolled his car at the same corner. EKS Sport’s Krisztian Szabo won race 1 and was P10 in Q1.