World RX: Solberg beats Ekstrom to Lydden win

World Rallycross Championship leader Petter Solberg won the British round at Lydden Hill, beating DTM star Mattias Ekstrom by just three tenths of a second in the final.

The pair won a semi-final apiece to start on the front row for the Motorsport News World RX of Great Britain, from where Solberg took the standard route around Chessens Drift while Ekstrom dashed straight for the joker lap.

Solberg led out front for the first five laps, leaving his compulsory joker until the start of the final tour, returning over the jump on the joker exit side by side with Ekstrom and just getting out ahead.

For the remaining three-quarters of the final lap, Ekstrom pushed Solberg as hard as he could but there was no way by the Norwegian, who extends his lead at the head of the championship over third-placed Johan Kristoffersson.

"The whole weekend at Lydden has been brilliant," said 2014 champion Solberg. "The first day was absolutely fantastic, then I was very lucky in the third heat because I had a problem with the fuel pump. "It was a big fight in the final. Mattias put up a really big fight and it's great to win."

OlsbergsMSE pair Andreas Bakkerud and Reinis Nitiss finished fourth and fifth to take the lead of the teams' championship, while Guy Wilks was the highest-placed British runner by making it to the final on his rallycross debut, driving a Mini RX for the JRM Racing team.

Wilks had won a close duel with Frenchman Davy Jeanney in the second semi-final to land a place in the final. The former JWRC driver followed Ekstrom and Bakkerud into the joker on lap one of the final and held third despite suffering a left-rear puncture.

Former British Touring Car champion and Team Peugeot-Hansen wildcard Andrew Jordan set the fastest time overall in the third heat and ran third in the opening laps of the second semi-final but dropped to fifth with a last-lap joker and didn't make it into the final.

FINAL RESULTS:

Originally on Autosport.com