In its 41 years of history the European Rallycross Championship today got in Russian Timur Timerzyanov the first ever title winner that wasn’t able to claim a single event victory during the season.
The European Rallycross Championship of the year 2013 is over and out and history now. Since its inaugural year 1973 the ERC has seen a total of 41 seasons and many different title winners. But it has never happened before that a driver claimed European gold without winning a single round of the series. Although Tatarstan-Russian Timur Timerzyanov was pretty close to make today’s Finale at the Estering in Buxtehude near Hamburg his, in the end things did not happen the way he wanted.
After finishing in fourth place and winning his second title back-to-back Hansen Motorsport man Timerzyanov said later: “I’m so happy. At the start of the year I didn’t expect to take the championship again, but I wanted it really badly and it’s amazing that we have managed it. We approached this weekend the same as we have all season, the most important thing is consistency and stability.”
The last Final of the season had started with utter chaos for Petter Solberg in the so-called “Hohlweg”. After getting notched by Liam Doran, who was trying to find a gap between the cars of Solberg and Timerzyanov, the Norwegian became a helpless passenger in his Citroën SuperCar. Bouncing around the black DS3 stranded already before the first corner, here showing a lot of damage from the shunt.
For once, “Hollywood” was actually lost for words. “I just can’t believe it,” he reflected afterwards. “We had the best weekend of the whole year with three heat victories, a fantastic semi-final, the circuit record, pole position and a track that was really made for me and my driving style. I loved it and I knew that we had a really good chance this weekend. And then this takes place. I’ve just got no words for what happened. I haven’t been this angry for years!”
Without pressure from the 2003 World Rally Champion Timur Timerzyanov took the clear lead now and was on his way to the first 2013 victory when the Final got stopped by the red flag. The Renault Clio Mk3 of Stig-Olov Walfridsson, who was in third place for two laps, had stopped in the Joker Lap track section, blocking the racing line and then being on fire in its engine bay. The officials subsequently decided against a re-run [according to article 18 of the General Prescriptions of the FIA code this is possible when 75% or more of the race distance has been completed], declaring the following order after four laps to be decisive for the official results. However, as Timerzyanov was the only driver of the four still racing who had not done his Joker Lap yet, he got a 30 seconds penalty that dropped him down to fourth.
Timerzyanov’s teammate Alexander Hvaal all of a sudden found himself back on top of the winners podium, where he had already been the week before in Greinbach. “It was a crazy final! The victory is not feeling too good. When the Final got the red flag, I was second of our last finish line crossing. Timur was leading, but he didn’t do his Joker Lap before the red flag came out, so he got that 30 seconds penalty. Then it was me first, Bakkerud second, since he was right behind me while the last finish line crossing, and Liam in third,” stated Hvaal later in the evening.
Championship contenders Davy Jeanney and Timmy Hansen had a frustrating weekend in Germany. Jeanney, who had started badly by forgetting to take his Joker Lap in Heat 1 on Saturday, finished fourth in Semi-Final 1. Before that the Frenchman had claimed the fastest time in Heat 3 as well as the third quickest time in Heat 4, and had been back in good mood again. Hansen joined the fellow Citroën driver in Semi-Final 1, but rolled out of the race already during the first lap.
Oposite to his Saturday Latvian Reinis Nitišs had a mixed Sunday at Buxtehude. But eventually he made it to second place in his Semi-Final and then won the Final, to claim his sixth overall victory out of the nine ERC rounds. In TouringCars it was the weekend of Robin Larsson, the Swede won all of his races, but Heat 3 in which he finished third. However, in the end the Škoda campaigner was the only driver who took the maximum of 28 championship home. In the last round of the JRX series Kevin Hansen was able to turn all cards into his favour. By beating season long championship leader William Nilsson the younger son of “His Kennyness” was able to win his second title with a margin of a single point.
More Buxtehude images to be found here in our Gallery.
The official SuperCars final results to be found here.
The official Super1600s final results to be found here.
The official TouringCars final results to be found here.
- FINAL ERC STANDINGS
- SuperCars:
- 1. Timur Timerzyanov (RUS) 185 Points
- 2. Davey Jeanney (F) 156 Points
- 3. Timmy Hansen (S) 145 Points
- Super1600s:
- 1. Reinis Nitišs (LV) 227
- 2. Ildar Rakhmatullin (RUS) 187
- 3. Ulrik Linnemann (DK) 185
- TouringCars:
- 1. Derek Tohill (IRL) 212
- 2. Robin Larsson (S) 170
- 3. Roman Častoral (CZ) 168
The highlights of Day 2.
