FIA World Rallycross Press Office

Norway’s Petter Solberg set the fastest time in Q1 at the final round of the FIA World Rallycross Championship in Argentina, as rain effected the first session of the weekend in Rosario.

Solberg beat Latvia’s Janis Baumanis away from the start line in the first race of the day and led until the finish, pulling out a margin of over six seconds. Norway’s Andreas Bakkerud took the lead of the second race ahead of 2016 Champion Mattias Ekstrom, but ran wide on the long un-sealed section of the circuit, Ekstrom taking the lead to the finish to set the second fastest time, with race three winner, Sweden’s Johan Kristoffersson third overall despite heavy rain falling during the third race. Kristoffersson’s Volkswagen RX Sweden team mate Anton Marklund finished second on track to his colleague and was seventh.

The most frantic race in Q1 was the last one, where America’s Ken Block took the lead at the first corner and fended off the attentions of Finland’s Topi Heikkinen for all of the four laps, Heikkinen take his joker on lap three but was forced to take another on lap four when he made a mistake on the penultimate corner of the last lap and ran wide into the joker. Block won to be sixth fastest.

Peugeot-Hansen pairing Sebastien Loeb and Timmy Hansen were involved in a battle with OlsbergsMSE’s Kevin Eriksson in the last race, Estering RX winner Eriksson losing fourth place to Hansen when he spun on the last lap. JRM Racing’s Nick Jones retired on the second lap on his race.

The remainder of Saturday's racing [Qualifying 2] was postponed at the Autodromo Rosario, Argentina, due to extreme weather conditions, and has shifted to Sunday's schedule.