Litwinowicz doubles up in Portugal

Euro RX3 championship leader Damian Litwinowicz maintained his perfect record in the 2023 FIA European Rallycross Championship at Montalegre today (4 June), racing to a second consecutive victory to extend his advantage at the top of the title table in Portugal.

Volland Racing dominated the heat races with its quartet of Audi A1s, piloted by Litwinowicz, home hero João Ribeiro, Espen Isaksætre and Nils Volland. The only fly in their ointment was local star André Sousa, who denied them a clean sweep of fastest times by less than a tenth-of-a-second, but a start-line clash with Litwinowicz in heat four pitched the Portuguese driver head-on into the barriers and ruled him out of the rest of the weekend.

A stellar start by Volland in the first semi-final propelled the German past pole-sitter Litwinowicz, and he would remain ahead throughout, joking that he ‘kept cool, not like last time’. That earned him pole position for the all-important final, with Isaksætre – winner of the other semi-final – alongside and Litwinowicz back in third next to Ribeiro.

The son of team owner Rolf Volland converted his advantage into the lead at the start, with Litwinowicz diving up the inside of Isaksætre into second. After hassling his team-mate over the course of the opening lap, the Pole darted into the joker next time around. When Volland responded a lap later, he rejoined alongside the sister Audi, narrowly holding Litwinowicz off following a crowd-pleasing doorhandle-to-doorhandle duel.

Undeterred, the Poznan native pulled off a bold pass to turn the tables heading onto lap four, and his pace was such that when Isaksætre jokered on the last lap, Litwinowicz was able to sweep past to cement his second career success at Euro RX3 level.

Like in the Nyirád curtain-raiser, the Norwegian took the runner-up spoils, with Volland rounding out the rostrum in third as Škoda Fabia driver Martin Kjær pinched fourth from Ribeiro and countryman Jorge Machado completed the finishers in his Citroën C2.