Sweden’s Mattias Ekstrom won race four to set the quickest time in Q2 at the World RX of France, round eight of the FIA World Rallycross Championship.

Ekstrom led his race from the front and took his joker on the last lap to set the best time, which would not be beaten by any of the drivers in the final race of the day, which was won by PSRX Volkswagen Sweden’s Johan Kristoffersson.

“I think we have been all weekend long feeling quite ok but in free practice we didn’t really put the times together. From Q1 I must say we were feeling good in the cars, just my start wasn’t too good then in Q2 I had a good one and a clean race so I’m really happy to be up in the mix,” said Ekstrom. “We know that Johan (Kristoffersson) and the Volkswagen as a combination is very fast, we have seen it for a while now but we do everything we can to give them at least a battle for it. Tomorrow is a new day but I think we can be pretty happy for today.”

Second quickest in Q2 gives Kristoffersson overnight TQ (top qualifier) after he made a slow start in his race but passed the entire field, including race leader Andreas Bakkerud in the last corner of lap three to take the win. Olsbergs MSE’s Kevin Eriksson won race three and was fourth quickest as GRX Taneco’s Niclas Gronholm and Team Peugeot Total’s Timmy Hansen completed the Q2 top six.