GRX Taneco’s Niclas Gronholm is TQ (top qualifier) in the World RX of Canada, round seven of the World Rallycross Championship at Trois-Rivieres.
Finland’s Gronholm survived a dramatic race 4 in Q4 to set the quickest time, as behind chaos broke out in the final race of qualifying. In the run to the first corner, Gronholm was squeezed between Monster Energy RX Cartel’s Andreas Bakkerud and team-mate Timerzyanov, who both spun.
Team Hansen MJP’s Timmy Hansen collected Timerzyanov then Bakkerud as RX Cartel’s Liam Doran ran second.
Doran hit a wall on the unsealed surface on lap one and got a puncture, before two laps later he had a spin as at the same time Hansen passed Timeryzanov at turn four, all three cars making contact and coming to a stop.
That allowed Bakkerud to climb back into second in the race. All cars finished, but the damage to Hansen’s Peugeot 208 WRX meant he crawled to the line and has missed a place in the semi-finals.
Team STARD’s Janis Baumanis won Q4 race 2 and was second quickest, with Q3 race 1 winner, GC Kompetition ’s Guerlain Chicherit in P3.
GRX’s Gronholm and Timeryanov will start on row one for semi-final one, with Baumanis and GCK’s Rokas Baciuska on row two. Kevin Hansen and GCK’s Cyril Raymond will share row three.
In semi-final two, Bakkerud and Chicherit will start on row one, Doran and GCK’s Anton Marklund will take row two and ALL-INKL.COM Muennich Motorsport’s Timo Scheider and EKS Sport’s Krisztian Szabo will share row three.