Fired-up by the disappointment of being stripped
of his maiden FIA European Rallycross Championship victory in Hungary three
weeks earlier due to a post-race penalty, Ribeiro was on commanding form from
the outset at Mettet.
After out-dragging pole-sitter Volland on the blast
to the first corner in heat one, he proceeded to get the hammer down to claim
the first win of the weekend, with countryman André Sousa slotting in-between
his two fellow Audi drivers courtesy of an early joker strategy and a strong
turn-of-speed.
Ribeiro triumphed again in heat two, with Sousa
doing him another favour as he once more got the better of Volland in the
second race. The championship protagonists both comfortably prevailed in their
respective heat three bouts the next morning – but while they replicated that
result in heat four, the manner in which they did so could scarcely have been
more different.
If Volland’s run was seamless, Ribeiro’s was
anything but, as the Portuguese ace got it all wrong from the lead at the end of
lap three and
nosed into tyre stack on the entry to the last corner. The delay dropped him to
third, but with the bit between his teeth, he fought back to overhaul Balázs Körmöczi
and Anders Hansen before the chequered flag to dramatically reclaim the top
spot – and with it, first place in the intermediate Ranking.
Having won a semi-final apiece – Ribeiro after
fending off a feisty Sousa – the title duellists subsequently lined up
alongside one other on the front row of the grid for the final around the
Circuit Jules Tacheny.
Volland hounded Ribeiro throughout, but just as
he sought to steal the undercut by diving into the joker at the end of lap
four, the Baltar native covered him off by doing likewise. The pair ran briefly
side-by-side but Ribeiro remained ahead, and his breakthrough Euro RX3 triumph
means he will travel to his home circuit of Montalegre next month (7-8
September) sitting just a single point shy of the summit of the standings.
“This is amazing!” the 40-year-old enthused. “Thank
you to all the Portuguese fans for giving me such amazing support – they are
always the best. We had a great strategy; it’s Nils [Volland] I’m fighting for
the championship and I knew he would probably try to joker a lap before me, so
we had to copy him. Now, everything will be decided in my home country in Portugal
– whatever happens, that will be a weekend to remember for sure!”
To compound Volland’s frustration, a late
puncture cost him the runner-up spot on the last lap to Dominik Senegacnik, who
celebrated his finest result to-date in his Škoda Fabia after fighting his way
past Sousa earlier on. Rookie Nico Geleyns wound up fourth ahead of Sousa, with
Libor Teješ reaching the final for the first time in only his second Euro RX3
appearance but retiring on the opening tour.
Greece
Poland
Portugal