Day 1 at Buxtehude in Germany has been ruled by Petter “Hollywood” Solberg who was the runner-up to Timmy Hansen in practice, but then claimed both the fastest times of Heat 1 and Heat 2.
The Estering just outside of Buxtehude near Hamburg in Germany is one of the oldest Rallycross venues in Europe. It saw its first ever Rallycross event in May 1972, hosted in May 1973 the second ERC round in history, and has ever since been the German venue for a total of 39 European Rallycross Championship rounds in 41 years. Therewith the Estering holds the record, followed by the Eurocircuit in Holland with 37 ERC rounds.
A total of 58 drivers arrived in Buxtehude to participate in the four different classes. The event kicked-off with the two hours long free practice sessions at 11 o’clock on Saturday morning. It looked as if Petter Solberg would set another fastest time in practice, but eventually it was Swede Timmy Hansen who was just that tiny bit of a 0.004 second faster than the Norwegian. The places three to six were taken by Frenchman Davy Jeanney, Norwegian Andreas Bakkerud, Briton Liam Doran and Russian Timur Timerzyanov.
Qualification started at 14.00, the SuperCars victory of Heat 1 was claimed by Petter Solberg. Although “Hollywood” was not completely happy with his performance with 2:35.390 minutes he was almost 3 seconds faster than his runner-up Timur Timerzyanov. The Russian did his four Estering laps in 2:38.334m, third fastest time was set by Liam Doran in 2:39.095m.
Davy Jeanney, who is currently second to Timerzyanov in the ERC point standings and has still a slight chance to win the 2013 title, could have been among the first half-a-dozen here, but soon found himself back in 22nd position. In the heat of the competition the Frenchman forgot to drive his Joker Lap and, therefore, got a 30 seconds penalty added to his 2:38.377m…
Heat 2 ended with Petter Solberg once again in the lead, but his time of 2:35.527m was less dominant now as Timmy Hansen followed with 2:36.810m in second place here. Third place was taken by Peter Hedström with 2:37.519m, the Swede again in good form after his fifth place in Heat 1. Timerzyanov made it to the fourth fastest time, thereby finishing the day in second position behind Solberg, while Hedström is third of the overnight standings.
In the Super1600s class the European championship had already been decided during the penultimate round at Greinbach in Austria. The 2013 title winner Reinis Nitišs is also in Buxtehude in top form, finishing both Saturday’s qualifying heats in first place to put himself with a clean slate on top of the overnight following order. Ulrik Linnemann is currently in second position, the Dane finished Day 1 with a second and a fourth fastest time. Russian Sergey Zagumennov is in third place, a fifth and a second fastest time collected him 7 points.
Robin Larsson, son of double European champion Lars “Stinsen” Larsson, is leading the TouringCars following order. The Swede made good use of his rear-wheel driven Škoda Fabia Mk1 to set twice the fastest times. Larsson, who is currently third of the championship, is set to move up into the SuperCars category for 2014. The VW Scirocco Mk3 of Belgian Jochen Coox was taken over by the Larsson squad in Buxtehude, young Robin is going to drive it in the Finale of the Swedish Rallycross Championship on October 5. If the car returns to Belgium after the Ring Kinnekulle event remains to be seen. The overnight places 2 to 4 in TouringCars are held by Norwegian Anders Bråten, the new European champion Derek Tohill from Ireland and Belgian Koen Pauwels, the Ford Fiesta trio in a tie with 7 points each.
More Buxtehude images to be found here in our Gallery.
Situation in SuperCars after Day 1 to be found here.
Situation in Super1600s after Day 1 to be found here.
Situation in TouringCars after Day 1 to be found here.
The highlights of Day 1.
