Johan Kristoffersson took his 23rd career win in Riga, Latvia.
Kristoffersson took a lights to flag victory in Riga, Latvia, round five of the 2020 FIA World Rallycross Championship.
The two-time champion was on pole position for the final, where he led from the start to take his 23rd career win.
Kristoffersson kept out of the turn two incident and was able to pull away to take the win untroubled.
Going into turn one Kristoffersson led from Mattias Ekstrom who was tucked in behind, whilst Robin Larsson was trying round the outside. Contact with the inside tyre wall at turn one launched Larsson into his KYB Team JC teammate, Ekstrom. Larsson was turned round and there was contact with Timmy Hansen and Niclas Gronholm.
Through the carnage of turn two Kevin Hansen was able to capitalise and move up from last on the grid to P2.
Gronholm took his joker on the opening lap and was closing down the gap so Kevin Hansen went a lap later to cover him which promoted Ekstrom into second place.
Ekstrom chased down the leader but the 2016 champion finished the race second, ahead of the defending champion, Timmy Hansen.
Timmy Hansen took third place, just keeping the position after his last lap joker from brother Kevin Hansen.
After both Kevin Hansen and Gronholm had taken their joker laps, Kevin was ahead but Gronholm was all over the back of him. Getting a wheel out on the loose Gronholm ended up backing his car into the tyre wall. He completed the race in fifth ahead of Larsson.
Andreas Bakkerud, Reinis Nitiss and Krisztian Szabo missed out on the final from semi-final one. Timo Scheider took the place of his teammate Rene Munnich in the second semi-final with Scheider, Timerzyanov and Doran not making it through to the final.
At the halfway point in the season Kristoffersson leads the drivers’ championship from Ekstrom by 21 points, with Gronholm in third place. KYB Team JC lead the team championship by 25 points from Team Hansen.
World RX returns with round six tomorrow in the third double-header of the 2020 season.
With the World RX of Portugal cancelled, the next event, the World RX of Spain will be a -double-header on 17-18 October.
Feature image credit: FIAWorldRallycross.com
