Kristoffersson Makes History In Hell

Johan Kristoffersson has made history by becoming the first ever event winner in the new all-electric era of the FIA World Rallycross Championship. The four-time world champion looked to be in imperious form all weekend as he leaves Hell in Norway with 20 points.

The final offered some textbook Kristoffersson control, poise, and power. After an uncharacteristically poor start, the Swedish driver was sat in fourth place at the first corner. Kristoffersson’s teammate, Ole Christian Veiby, ran a touch wide, going three-abreast with Niklas Grönholm in his PWR RX1e, and a very aggressive Timmy Hansen, who attempted a daring move around the outside of all of them. Spotting this would cause a little chaos, Kristoffersson, demonstrating why he is the most successful World RX driver of them all, backed out of it, slid his car down the inside of the lot of them, and emerged out of turn 1 in first position. From there, as is so often the way, Kristoffersson proved impossible to catch, and he soared to the line to take his 28th victory in World RX.

Hansen shouldn’t be too despondent, bringing his Hansen World RX Team Peugeot 208 RX1e home in second, just ahead of the second Kristoffersson Motorsport Volkswagen Polo RX1e of Norway’s Veiby, with Klara Andersson just edging out her Construction Equipment Dealer Team teammate Grönholm in 4th.

Kristoffersson with his winner’s trophy after making history in Hell. Credit: World @ Red Bull Content Pool

Kristoffersson only lost two of the races he entered this whole weekend. He came a very close second to Hansen in Heat 2, and completely missed the start in his semi-final. As the other three cars screamed off the line, Kristoffersson remained stationary before eventually getting his Polo going. By the time the checkered flag dropped, however, he was back up into second position and was climbing all over the back of Veiby. If there hadn’t been a yellow flag caused by the unfortunate retirement of Rene Münnich in his Seat Ibiza RX1e, there would likely have been a daring and aggressive move up the inside of the final corner.

Ultimately, though, there was no stopping the defending champion. Speaking with characteristic confidence immediately after the race, he reasserted his dominance, saying “the first overtake of the weekend was in the final…so that was nice to be able to do that move.” Commenting on the debut for electric, he was more philosophical, saying “we still have a lot of work to do, but at the same time we are also learning [along] the way because everything is so new and faults happen. It’s just that we do those things now during the racing…but all in all it’s been good.”

It’s fair to say that, if this is a weekend that has been “disappointing” for the four-time world champion, his opponents should be very worried about what a more successful weekend will look like in the future.

POS.	NUM.	NAT.	DRIVER	TEAM				POINTS
1	1		Johan KRISTOFFERSSON	Kristoffersson Motorsport				20
2	21		Timmy HANSEN	Hansen World RX Team				16
3	52		Ole Christian VEIBY	Kristoffersson Motorsport				13
4	12		Klara ANDERSSON	Construction Equipment Dealer Team				12
5	68		Niclas GRÖNHOLM	Construction Equipment Dealer Team				11
6	17		Gustav BERGSTRÖM	Kristoffersson Motorsport				10
7	71		Kevin HANSEN	Hansen World RX Team				9
8	77		Rene MÜNNICH	ALL-INKL.COM Muennich Motorsport				8

Championship Standings after Round 1 of the 2022 FIA World Rallycross Championship