Liimatainen leads the way through fire and flood in EuroRX1

Mika Liimatainen made it through the first day of racing action in Sweden, at the top of the qualifying order thanks to a blistering pace in the first of his two qualifying heats. The Finnish ace made the best getaway and despite coming under pressure late on, guided his Hyundai i20 RX1 through greasy wet-to-dry conditions to bag maximum points. He was very slow away from the line in his second heat, but such was the variation in race performances, thanks in no small part to the weather, that he maintains a slim lead overnight.

It's a lead over local hero Martin Endlund, who like Liimatainen had contrasting fortunes across his two heats, with a puncture in the first dropping him back, before a stellar performance in Q2 with a well-timed joker and solid overall pace landed him second overall.

ALL-INKL.COM Muennich Motorsport join the EuroRX1 grid for the first time this season and René Münnich showed stellar pace in his Seat Ibiza to bag third position in the provisional standings. It may have been an even better story for the German driver had it not been for a penalty in Q1 dropping him back, but in Q2 he was super-neat despite ever-increasing rain and bagged the fastest overall time by over two seconds.

With an expanded 15-car entry this weekend, there were stories aplenty behind the top three. Current standings leader Yuri Belevskiy had a truly torrid time of it on-track. Having dominated the first event, he seemed to lack overall pace in his first heat, before stalling off the line in the second putting paid to chances of a strong result. There are two more qualifying sessions tomorrow morning, and the Swiss driver will certainly be pushing to make the semi-finals.

Amongst the bigger entry were two rookie drivers making their debuts in RX1 machinery – Joni Turpeinen and Lukas Andersson. Both young-guns impressed with rapid pace, but their inexperience also showed in an action packed Q2 Heat 3, where the pair bolted into the lead on lap one only to pirouette off the circuit together having taken too much speed into Turn 1 on the second tour. It’s a mistake both with surely learn from, and takes nothing away from their impressive performances today, ending up seventh and 12th respectively.

As if the fireworks that officially opened the racing action this afternoon around the circuit weren’t enough, fans were treated to another fiery spectacle courtesy of Peter Hedström in the final EuroRX1 heat of the day. As he was battling at the front of the field, flames began to spit from underneath his Peugeot 208 Supercar, but as he mixed fire and flood around the 1.2km circuit the problem didn’t appear to dent his pace. The Swedish driver finished the day fourth overall, and hopefully will return to the track in front of his home fans tomorrow without any unexpected pyrotechnics!

Click here for the provisional FIA European Rallycross Championship RX1 classification.

Click here to schedule tomorrow’s action live and free on the FIA World Rallycross Championship YouTube Channel.