Conventional wisdom said that Montalegre –
located 1,000 metres above sea-level in the Vila Real mountains and with the
longest main straight on the World RX calendar – would be EV territory, when
Kristoffersson drives a sustainably-fuelled, combustion-engined Volkswagen Polo
KMS 601 RX. No matter – he won both of his heat races anyway.
The odds seemed to be stacked against him
again when contact in his semi-final resulted in suspension damage that threatened
to rule the Arvika native out of the final – but neither Kristoffersson, nor
his KMS - HORSE Powertrain team have ever been the kind to lay down without a
fight.
Following a herculean repair effort by his crew,
the 35-year-old lined up in third position and held his ground around the
outside of the first corner to climb to second. He proceeded to hound Niclas Grönholm
throughout, prior to undercutting his rival with a pristine penultimate lap
joker to which the Finn had no answer. What’s more, his fifth triumph from
seven rounds in 2024 has carried Kristoffersson to within touching-distance of
an extraordinary seventh career crown.
“This is a real team victory after an amazing
job to get my car back onto the grid for the final,” the reigning world champion
reflected. “Montalegre is such an enjoyable circuit to drive and the Volkswagen
has always suited the track well, and we spent the past few weeks looking at
everything we could do to be as fast as possible. Niclas [Grönholm] had great
pace in the final, but I just managed to make the difference when it mattered.”
Having similarly kept a clean sheet during
the heats, pole-sitter Grönholm was disappointed to wind up second, missing out
on the top step of the podium by less than four tenths-of-a-second – the vast
majority of which he lost in the joker.
The CE Dealer Team by Volvo Construction
Equipment star could nonetheless take some encouragement from posting the
fastest lap of the day – half-a-second quicker than anybody else was able to muster
– as World RX’s innovative ‘Battle of Technologies’ delivered its closest duel
so far.
Kevin Hansen rounded out the rostrum with a
third consecutive top three finish behind the wheel of his electric Peugeot 208
RX1e, having at one stage appeared to be on-course for victory himself. The
Swede lost some time overtaking Ole Christian Veiby and also avoiding a tyre
stack dragged onto the racing line by Hansen World RX Team stablemate Timmy
Hansen, whose challenge came unstuck when he ploughed spectacularly into the
wall at the end of the opening tour.
Despite a sluggish start, Veiby took the
chequered flag fourth for KMS - HORSE Powertrain, with René Münnich securing a
season-high fifth in his ALL-INKL.COM Muennich Motorsport-run SEAT Ibiza.
Fellow ICE competitor Anthony Pelfrene, meanwhile, was arguably the unluckiest
driver of the day, unleashing an impressive turn-of-speed in his Peugeot 208
WRX and looking set to reach the final for the first time until contact with Kristoffersson
towards the end of the pair’s semi-final sent him into a spin.
Mikaela Åhlin-Kottulinsky leads the way in
RX2e, with title protagonists Isak Sjökvist and Nils Andersson equal-second. There
is a three-way tie for the top spot in Euro RX1 between Julien Fébreau, Damian
Litwinowicz and champion-elect Patrick O’Donovan. Home hero Joaquim Machado is
the pace-setter in Euro RX3, as Nils Volland seized the early initiative over
João Ribeiro in the hunt for championship glory.
The action continues tomorrow (Sunday, 8
September) with the remaining heats, semi-finals and finals in the support
series and round eight of the 2024 World RX campaign.
FINAL
RESULT: WORLD RX
1. Johan
KRISTOFFERSSON (SWE) KMS - Horse Powertrain (ICE) 5
laps
2. Niclas GRÖNHOLM (FIN) CE Dealer Team (EV) +
0.398s
3. Kevin HANSEN (SWE) Hansen World RX Team (EV) +
2.895s
4. Ole Christian VEIBY (NOR) KMS - Horse Powertrain (ICE) +
5.654s
5. René MÜNNICH (DEU) ALL-INKL.COM Muennich
Motorsport (ICE) + 12.374s
DNF Timmy
HANSEN (SWE) Hansen World RX Team (EV) + 4 laps
Japan
Poland
Turkey