Kristoffersson pips birthday boy Veiby in close SuperPole session

Multiple FIA World Rallycross Champion Johan Kristoffersson maintained his flawless SuperPole record in Hell today (17 June), narrowly pipping team-mate and home hero Ole Christian Veiby to the fastest time, with FIA World Rally Championship legend Sébastien Loeb producing a stellar lap to go third.

In one of the tightest SuperPole sessions to-date, Gustav Bergström set the early pace, before Loeb supplanted the young gun at the summit of the order behind the wheel of his Special ONE Racing Lancia Delta Evo-e RX. The Frenchman’s reign was short, however, as Veiby subsequently went two tenths-quicker again in his Volkswagen RX1e on his 27^th birthday – and then Kristoffersson dug deeper still to top the timesheets by just over a tenth-of-a-second.

“Ole Christian gave me some tough competition there,” acknowledged the Swede. “The conditions were very tricky, and it was so easy to make a mistake. It was difficult to push all-out, because if you made a mistake you would lose so much time. I was safe-ish, but still made some mistakes – although I think nobody really had a clean lap.

“When you put everything on the line, you feel the pressure because it’s important for the weekend – there are no points handed out for SuperPole, but it sets things off in a slightly easier way. There is a lot of pressure inside your head to nail the lap when it matters.”

Loeb wound up third in only his second event back in the series following an absence of almost five years, denying Volkswagen Dealerteam BAUHAUS a top three lockout by a scant 0.024s. Back at the scene of her eye-catching World RX debut last summer, Klara Andersson produced another impressive effort to go fifth for CE Dealer Team by Volvo Construction Equipment, with Montalegre runner-up Kevin Hansen the best-placed of the two Hansen World RX Team entries in sixth.

Double DTM Champion Timo Scheider monstered the middle sector of the lap in his ALL-INKL.COM Münnich Motorsport SEAT Ibiza RX1e to slot into seventh position, ahead of two of the pre-event favourites, with Niclas Grönholm a lowly eighth for CE Dealer Team and 2019 title-winner Timmy Hansen a disappointed ninth for Hansen World RX Team. Guerlain Chicherit rounded out the order for Special ONE Racing in tenth.

The racing action gets underway at 13:10 CET with the opening heat for Euro RX3. Heat one for World RX will begin at 14:07. You can watch all the action live weekend-long on RX+. Monthly and annual subscriptions can be purchased here.