World RX: Ekstrom wins after Hansen penalized

Timmy Hansen pulled a final-corner move on Mattias Ekstrom to win the Swedish round of the World Rallycross Championship on the road, but was penalized post-race for exceeding track limits. The Team Peugeot-Hansen man was docked a position by the stewards, handing Ekstrom his second World RX victory.

Hansen had started on the front row and ran second on the first lap behind poleman Andreas Bakkerud, while Ekstrom survived a poor start to run third as he headed straight for the joker lap, followed by championship leader Petter Solberg.

At the front, Hansen attached his Peugeot to the rear of Bakkerud's OlsbergsMSE Ford Fiesta and was desperate to get ahead to try and gap Ekstrom and Solberg.

Ekstrom's path was fortuitously cleared when Toomas Heikkinen took his joker lap just as the Audi DTM star caught him, but after Hansen passed Bakkerud on the inside in the banked Velodrome section on lap five and Bakkerud took his joker it looks as though Hansen had enough in hand to take his joker and remain in front.

A mistake while attempting to do just that on lap six allowed Ekstrom to get through into the lead, but Hansen pushed hard on the final lap and threw his car up the inside of Ekstrom into the last corner.

Ekstrom was pushed wide and Hansen claimed the win over the line before later being penalized.

Bakkerud finished third with Heikkinen fourth and Reinis Nitiss fifth, while Solberg did not finish after hitting a kerb and breaking the steering on his Citroen DS 3 on the fifth lap.

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Originally on Autosport.com