Canada World RX: Gronholm takes early lead after Q2

The Hyundai i20 driver took an early joker lap in his Q1 race from second in a bid to overhaul leader Anton Marklund, but after dropping valuable time in traffic, Marklund was able to beat Gronholm at the joker merge on the final tour. Gronholm wound up sixth.

Having then been beaten into the lead of his race in Q2 by Marklund’s GCK teammate Guerlain Chicherit, Gronholm again ducked into the joker on the opening tour, and despite dropping time behind Latvian campaigner Janis Baumanis before the Fiesta driver removed himself from the equation with a lap three joker, Gronholm leapfrogged Chicherit and set the best time to move into top spot.

Gronholm’s ascendancy was in part thanks to Q1 victor Andreas Bakkerud losing out to Marklund and teammate Liam Doran at the start of the first race in Q2, when the track was at its slipperiest thanks to light rain between the sessions.

Doran had been second overall in Q1, then pulled off an impressive outside move through the loose-surface turn four on Marklund for the race lead on the first lap of their Q2 encounter, but he was slowed by a technical issue and is eighth at the close of the day.

Bakkerud meanwhile, despite being eighth in Q2 held onto second overall, with Chicherit third thanks to a second best time in Q2.

It was a solid day for the five-car GCK squad. In a third Renault Megane, Rokas Baciuska passed Krisztian Szabo on the final lap of his race in Q1, before dropping down the order when he was handed a five-second track limits penalty.

With the race order reversed by random draw for Q2 (the fastest drivers from Q1 running in the first race), Baciuska won the final race of the day and was third fastest, lifting him back into the semi-final paying positions.

Championship leader Kevin Hansen also fell victim to a track limits infringement, a five-second penalty in Q2 placing him 11th in the session, to add to his 10th best time from Q1 after the Hansen MJP driver got held up in traffic.

His teammate, brother and closest points rival Timmy Hansen also had a difficult day. Fifth in Q1 after a close race with Timur Timerzyanov, the older Hansen sibling then took a lap one joker in his Q2 race, but made a mistake in the slippery conditions, touched a tyre barrier and lost ground to the pack ahead. 14th time in the session leaves the Swede 11th, one place ahead of Kevin.

Classifications after Saturday:

Cla	Driver	Chassis	Q1	Q2	QP
1	Niclas Gronholm	Hyundai i20	38	50	88
2	Andreas Bakkerud	Audi S1	50	36	86
3	Guerlain Chicherit	Renault Megane RS	37	45	82
4	Anton Marklund	Renault Megane RS	40	38	78
5	Timur Timerzyanov	Hyundai i20	42	35	77
6	Timo Scheider	Seat Ibiza	36	40	76
7	Janis Baumanis	Ford Fiesta	35	39	74
8	Liam Doran	Audi S1	45	29	74
9	Rokas Baciuska	Renault Megane RS	29	42	71
10	Krisztián Szabó	Audi S1	32	37	69
11	Timmy Hansen	Peugeot 208	39	30	69
12	Kevin Hansen	Peugeot 208	34	33	67
13	Cyril Raymond	Renault Clio RS	33	31	64
14	Oliver Bennett	Mini Cooper	28	34	62
15	Guillaume De	Renault Clio RS	30	32	62
16	Jani Paasonen	Ford Fiesta	31	27	58
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