This was very late coming together, but I was able to pop across to Barcelona for the opening round of the World Rallycross Championship.
I think a few of you follow this Championship and, given that many picture were taken, here are a few of my faves:
Mattias Ekstrom took an early lead after winning the opening qualifying race…
…but this is the view that most of the field got in the subsequent qualifiers: the new rear wing fitted to the Polo of Petter Solberg!
As with last year conditions were very mixed, with relentless rain on Saturday and blazing sunshine on the Sunday.
Although the weather wasn’t always that pleasant for spectating, it was great for the racing as we got a day of watching the drivers fight with the cars in the wet, then a day of seeing them absolutely flat out in the dry.
As the first round of the Championship there were a load of new cars to look at, but there was one I was especially keen to see up close as it has been put together by every Subaru owners favourite, Prodrive.
The Megane looked very stiff on track but, despite my doubts about the drivers, both cars made it to the semi-finals.
Anton Marklund won the European Championship with a pretty dominant drive last season and he started off in a similar fashion at Barcelona.
Reinis Nitiss has a new car (the ex-Niclas Gronholm M-Sport Fiesta) for 2018 and, after a slightly shaky start, he became the driver to beat in the European Championship races.
After winning three of the four qualifiers, Nitiss won his semi-final and took a comfortable win in the final, leaving Marklund having to settle with second. I hope Reinis can maintain his form in subsequent European rounds, as I think he deserves some success.
Timmy Hansen seemed to find a lot of speed in the dry and he looked a serious challenger for the win in the latter stages of Sunday. Unfortunately his car died during the semi-final and he ended up retiring. Damn shame, but I hope it’s a sign that the Peugeot Sport 208 will be competitive this year.
With Timmy out of the picture it looked like the overall victory would be contested by Solberg and Ekstrom, however contact on turn one resulted in Petter being shunted into a stack of tyres. Johan Kristoffersson chased Ekstrom, but couldn’t find a was past and so had to settle for second…
…however, although Ekstrom crossed the line first, he was subsequently disqualified and the win was awarded to Kristoffersson. A rather controversial way to start the Championship, but I didn’t think it was a fair move so am glad to see the officials intervene.
Round 2 is this weekend: so it’s going to be interesting to see if Solberg and Ekstrom come to blows there!