SOLBERG SCOOPS WORLD RX 2016 OPENER IN PORTUGAL

Hoonigan Racing Division’s Andreas Bakkerud also stunned the critics with an incredible performance in his box-fresh Ford Focus RS-RX. What had originally been penciled in as something of a development weekend, turned into a bare-knuckle fight for the podium for the young Norwegian racer, as he claimed third and fourth in Q3 and Q4 respectively. This primed him for a front row start in semi final two alongside Petter. Bakkerud then went one further, gaining a spot in the main final, only narrowly missing out on podium place behind Topi Heikkinen by a half a second. Team mate Ken Block suffered a tough weekend but remains more determined than ever to bounce back at the next race in Germany.

Liam Doran rounded out the M-claw assault on the finals in Montalegre by putting in another stunning performance at the wheel of this JRM Racing Mini RX Supercar on the second day of racing. The 28-year-old British driver placed 10th and 12th in Q3 and Q4, hassling the competition at every turn. If his raw speed in Portugal is anything to go by, then expect big things from the #BritishBomb this season.

Check out the exclusive reaction from our athletes below, and then head over to http://www.fiaworldrallycross.com/ for a full blow by blow account of all the dirt shredding action at the season opener of World RX 2016. Next up is round two at Hockenheim, in Germany, on the 6th of May. See you there.

Petter Solberg – 1st: "Yes! Unbelievable! We had a very difficult start to the weekend loosing a lot of time in the mud and rain yesterday, so to come through to win the final is absolutely fantastic. We had a team meeting in the evening after day one, and I felt very comfortable with the solutions that we came up with. I said to my guys, ok – we need to be smart and play it safe about day two, we are only in seventh overall – we have been in worse situations before. We need to fight for a place in the semi final, progress into the final and then go from there. I had a problem with the launch control in the semi final and the final – we did everything possible to fix it between the two races; I was working on the wires with my engineers as well. In the end we just had to go out without launch control, and I had to think back to ’93 and just do the launch on my feeling alone – the old fashioned way seemed to have worked this time! It’s been a big job to get everything ready for the start of the season, so I’m very very happy. It’s a shame what happened with the racing incident with Kristoffersson. I just got a little sideways with the momentum and I hit him – it was completely unintentional and I feel sorry that he couldn’t continue fighting. The level of driving and competition is absolutely crazy, and I’m sure we will have more fights in the rest of the season!"

Andreas Bakkerud – 4th: "The semi final and final were proper rallycross races, that’s for sure. We ironed out a lot of things throughout the weekend, and we just got faster and faster – I’m amazed at the pace we found in such a new car. I struggled a little bit on with the launches, but again we are working on this, and with every session things got better and better. To go from just over 20 laps of racing, which we almost treated as testing, straight into a World Rallycross final is crazy, but we did it and got fourth place. I feel bad for Ken, as he has been very unlucky with the timings of his races. The changing conditions combined with the fact that in the mud you needed to use techniques more like a front wheel drive car – which he hasn’t really ever done – means it’s been a very tough weekend for him. Our expectation going into the weekend was realistic, but as soon as I saw my name near the top of the board for lap times I just wanted more and more. It’s been such a fun start of the season, and it’s just great to finally go racing – I fell like I’ve been waiting for this for a long time! This is just the beginning of something big; we have data to pull on now. I don’t want to set the bar too high for Hockenheim and put an extra level of pressure on, but we have a solid start under our belts now. We will work away at all of the small details and hopefully that will work to a big result."

Liam Doran – 10th: "I honestly can`t remember the last time I’ve managed to do so many laps over a race weekend, the reliability of the car is really so good, and the guys at JRM have done a great job. I pushed incredibly hard today, and to tell the truth was absolutely wringing the car’s neck - It was on the limiter for most of the lap. We I placed 10th and 12th in Q3 and Q4, but had some really great battles in each session. I actually missed the lights in Q3, but ironically that actually helped a little as I could see what everyone was doing, and I planned a way around the carnage. In Q4 I was battling with Topi and although he had the speed on the straights, I was able to brake much later than him, and push him around the corners. The Mini is such a stable platform, and I’ve got a really good feeling heading into Hockenheim – thank you again to all my team, and everyone involved, for putting in the hours to make this weekend happen – I’m already counting the days to the next race in Germany."

Ken Block – 18th: "The good news is that Andreas has proven that with the right set-up and driving style, that the car definitely works. I just had a really tough couple of days, but it is what it is. When it got dry for I was able to put in some decent lap times but once again I was at in the first race of the qualification session (Q3) and the times from the field got faster and faster. I also made a small mistake and was left foot breaking a little too hard to control the car. Q4 was a solid race and I got third which was small boost. I’ve done a total of 28 laps now on this track, and that’s pretty tough going with only a small amount of testing – when you are going up against drivers at this level. We know we have a package that works, and we have some really really good data to use going forward into Hockenheim."