Ribeiro travelled to Mettet’s Circuit Jules
Tacheny sitting eight points behind Nils Volland in the chase for the crown,
but a full score from the event enabled him to close that gap to just one. The
only other driver to keep a completely clean sheet in Belgium was Johan Kristoffersson
in Sunday’s World RX contest.
Four straight qualifying race wins and a subsequent
semi-final success earned Ribeiro pole position for the final, in which he
fended off a determined Volland throughout. The German sought to gain the
undercut by diving into the joker on lap four, but his fellow Audi driver saw
it coming and swung into the joker himself at the last moment to artfully cover
the move off.
That strategic masterstroke proved pivotal to
securing Ribeiro a hugely popular maiden Euro RX3 triumph – having been denied
the winner’s trophy at Nyirád three weeks earlier by a post-race penalty – and he
celebrated the result surrounded by a large number of Portuguese fans. One
suspects there will be rather more of them cheering him on at Montalegre in
just over a week’s time...
“I’m so happy,” acknowledged the 40-year-old
Baltar native. “[Losing the win] in Hungary was a big disappointment for
everybody in our team, but at Mettet, I pushed to the limit and did what I
needed to do by finishing all of the races in first place.
“My focus was solely on Nils, as he was the one
I had to beat. After the first corner in the final, I was only thinking about
how I could stay ahead of him. I knew he would try to go into the joker on the
penultimate lap, so at the very last moment, I went in as well and closed the
door.
“It will be a very tough fight at Montalegre, for
sure. I’ve had so many messages from people saying they will be there to
support me. I really can’t imagine what the atmosphere is going to be like...”
Greece
Poland
Portugal