The FIA World
Rallycross Championship’s leading lights picked up their trophies at the end of
the 2023 campaign in Baku last Friday night (8 December), during a glittering,
star-studded ceremony at the annual FIA Prize-Giving Gala.
The top three
finishers from the most recent World RX season – Johan Kristoffersson (Volkswagen
Dealerteam BAUHAUS), Kevin Hansen (Hansen World RX Team) and Niclas Grönholm (CE
Dealer Team by Volvo Construction Equipment) – were all present to accept their
awards, with Team Principal Tommy Kristoffersson collecting the coveted Teams’
trophy on behalf of the Kristoffersson Motorsport-run squad for the second
consecutive year.
Kristoffersson
Jnr – who was joined on stage by his Volkswagen RX1e – was congratulated on his
sixth world championship crown by former team-mate and two-time World RX
title-winner Petter Solberg, who wished the series ‘a fantastic year with a lot
of action and good competition, and a championship fight right to the end of
the season’ in 2024.
Reflecting for
one final time on 2023, however – a campaign that yielded three straight victories
at the wheel of his RX1e car as well as two further triumphs in the ZEROID X1
in Cape Town and Hong Kong – Kristoffersson was quick to pay tribute to his
team behind-the-scenes.
“The key to success was our preparation over
the winter months,” asserted the 34-year-old Swede. “We have a very limited
amount of testing in World RX, but the guys did a great job to develop the car –
utilising all the data we had gained the previous year – and that really paid
dividends when we started the season.
“They built an amazing car that is just a
pleasure to drive, and while it’s never easy to maintain momentum, when you
win, that gives you confidence and just makes you stronger and stronger.
“It was a big challenge to switch cars midway through
to one that we didn’t have much experience of – the only time I had previously
driven the ZEROID X1 was at Race of Champions on the ice, which wasn’t exactly
representative! We first got our hands on it two days before the race weekend
at Mettet, so we had to adapt very quickly.
“We did that, though, and we then had a
fantastic end to the season in Hong Kong. It was my first time there, and to sign
off with a win on the final day in front of such an incredible backdrop and so
many people was really something very special.”
Finland
Italy
Hungary