Rallycross: Bakkerud takes Istanbul victory

Factory Ford driver Andreas Bakkerud won the 11th round of the World Rallycross Championship at former Turkish Grand Prix Formula 1 venue Istanbul Park.

Peugeot-Hansen driver Timmy Hansen had started on pole after topping the intermediate classification and winning his semi-final. Bakkerud started on row two alongside Marklund Motorsport Volkswagen man Anton Marklund, while Bakkerud's Olsbergs team-mate Toomas Heikkinen had also won his semi-final and joined Hansen on the front row.

As the lights changed, it was Bakkerud who jumped to second at the first corner ahead of Heikkinen, while Marklund dropped behind Monster Energy driver Henning Solberg, who had started on the back row.

Bakkerud passed Hansen for the lead at the end of lap one, with Hansen immediately taking his joker on lap two and returning to the main circuit just ahead of Heikkinen, who had taken his compulsory extra route on lap one.

Hansen caught second place man Henning Solberg and passed the Norwegian on lap three, only for the places to exchange again immediately.

The older of the Solberg brothers took his joker on lap four, returning to the main track ahead of Marklund and releasing Hansen to chase Bakkerud, who took his joker on lap five and rejoined the ex-F1 route just ahead of the Peugeot.

Bakkerud then held on under pressure from Hansen to score his second win of the season and end a run of bad luck that has hounded him throughout the second half of the year.

Heikkinen was third ahead of Marklund. Champion Petter Solberg had twice stalled on the grid in heats three and four, but made it though to the back row of the final with a third place finish in his semi-final. At the start of the final he would again suffer startline problems and retired on the first lap.

EKS RX driver Edward Sandstrom and OlsbergsMSE driver Reinis Nitiss finished fourth in their semi-finals and just missed out on the final.

Double Junior World Rally champion PG Andersson showed good speed in the other EKS RX Audi but an engine change ruled him out of heat one and he just missed out on the semi-finals.