Finland’s Niclas Gronholm set his second career quickest time in Q2 at the Team Verksted World RX of Norway, round five of the FIA World Rallycross Championship to take the overnight TQ (top qualifier) position.

GRX Taneco’s Gronholm won Q2 Race 4 and added the quickest time to his Q1 victory, to take the TQ place. His GRX Taneco team-mate Timur Timerzyanov was second in Q2 Race 4 and is second to Gronholm in the standings.

For the second session in a row, ALL-INK.COM Muennich Motorsport’s Timo Scheider used a clever joker lap strategy to secure race victory and was second quickest to join the GRX drivers in the top three at the end of day one.

“It seems to be going my way today. I had a small clutch issue in the start of Q2, so really lucky not to get a jump start, that’s why I made a huge launch. Otherwise on the track, I don’t know if the conditions are suiting me or what, but it seems to be going well," Gronholm, who returns to Hell RX after missing the Belgian and UK rounds with illness, said.

"I’m trying to do my best in every qualification, like I said earlier in the semi-final and final anything can happen so we just need to keep our heads down, keep working and try to maintain this speed."

Latvia’s Janis Baumanis fought back from a DNF in Q1 with P4 in Q2 by winning Race 1, GC Kompetition’s Anton Marklund and Team Hansen MJP’s Timmy Hansen completed the top six. In the overall classification, just 11 qualifying points separate P8 to P16, leaving everything to play for tomorrow.

Sweden’s Robin Larsson was quickest in Euro RX Supercar Q2 but Norway’s Thomas Bryntesson leads overnight, and Oliver Eriksson moved into the lead of the RX2 International Series with quickest time in Q2.