CE Dealer Team by Volvo Construction
Equipment has work to do ahead of the 2023 FIA World Rallycross Championship
season finale in Hong Kong next month, after a disappointing double-header in
South Africa last weekend (7-8 October) saw Niclas Grönholm slip from second to
fourth in the title standings.
Returning to Cape Town following a
four-year absence, the Finn was the most recent World RX winner in the ‘Mother
City’, but he could manage no better than fifth and sixth on the two race days
this time around, as CE Dealer Team struggled to get onto the pace at Killarney
International Raceway.
Both drivers picked up punctures on the
opening day, with only Grönholm progressing through to the final as Klara
Andersson in the sister ZEROID X1 missed out. The Swede showed significantly
improved speed 24 hours later, holding off Kevin Hansen in heat two and going
on to take the chequered flag fourth in the final, prior to being penalised for
contact with Timmy Hansen that dropped her to fifth.
“It was a tough weekend,” the
23-year-old acknowledged. “Both myself and Niclas struggled to find the feeling
in the car. It’s a difficult track, and the fact that I was there for the first
time also played into it.
“We had the same problem all weekend, but
we experimented with the set-up and it felt a bit better on Sunday. We need to
analyse everything before Hong Kong and hopefully find more speed. There are
two rounds left and a lot of points to fight for.”
Andersson wound up one place ahead of her
team-mate in Sunday’s final, with Grönholm finding himself repeatedly caught up
in contact not of his own making during the heats.
“It was a tricky weekend,” mused the
seven-time event-winner. “I couldn’t put a whole race together. There were some
positive lap times, but something was always missing. I need to work hard to
get back on pace in Hong Kong.”
Those sentiments are echoed by Team
Manager, Jussi Pinomäki, who is hopeful of a better performance around World RX’s
first-ever city centre circuit on 11-12 November.
“We struggled to get the feeling in the
cars to be able to push to the limit,” he explained. “To get both cars into the
final was the minimum we expected on Sunday. We saw signs of good speed from
heat three onwards, so now we need to analyse, keep learning and work hard to
bounce back stronger.”
Finland
Italy
Hungary