The Norwegian powered his HTB Racing Peugeot 208 RX Supercar to victory ahead of newly crowned Euro RX champion Kevin Hansen, despite a late spin for the outgoing champion. Frenchman Jérôme Grosset-Janin brought his similar Poujoulat-backed two-litre, 16v motor home in fourth, to retain his vice-champion crown for the Dumfries team.
Lochfoot racer Andy Scott narrowly missed the cut, after securing semi-final places in his last two outings. After a challenging Q3 on Sunday morning where he was held up by slower cars compromising his overall race time, the Motis/Rock Oil racer bounced back to lead his Q4 race, until a broken driveshaft on the last lap brought his challenge to an end.
Across the four qualifying races at the inaugural Neste World RX of Latvia at the Bikernieki National Sports Base, Rustad and Grosset-Janin were consistently in the top four, to easily progress to the semis. Each starting from the front row, they both scored dominant race wins to set-up an all-Albatec front row for the all-important Final.
At the lights, pole sitter Grosset-Janin struggled with a slippery surface, which allowed Rustad to get the drop. After a hectic first corner shuffle Rustad settled into the lead, extending his advantage over the course of the six lap race. Even a last corner spin could not prevent the 2015 Euro RX champion from taking a well-judged first victory for the Albatec team, with Grosset-Janin recovering to take fourth. The results across the weekend elevate Grosset-Janin to second, and cement Rustad’s fourth place in the title standings.
Andy Scott, Team Principal and driver Albatec Racing #26 :
“It’s been a really difficult weekend for me, normally I can find the speed on a new track really quickly but on this track I found it very difficult. Qualifying one and two were really quite hard but overnight I was still in a semi-final position in P12. Overnight it rained and normally the rain suits me very well, but in Q3 I made an absolutely terrible start, and although I ended up winning the race, the speed was compromised due to following slower cars on the early laps. That meant I didn’t have a good start position for Q4 and again I didn’t make the right choice for the start strategy, but knew I had the speed to win the race. I took the joker on the second lap and had some really fast laps to take the lead but unfortunately we broke a driveshaft on the last lap which dropped me to 13th and out of the semi-finals. So a disappointing weekend in one way, but taking the positives, I was fast enough in the last race to have made the semis if the car hadn’t broken.
“From a team perspective everybody worked incredibly hard all weekend and it’s fantastic to see Jérôme secure second in the championship for the second year running, and an amazing victory for Tommy which the whole team worked really hard for all weekend after the damage sustained in Barcelona. Certainly the victory didn’t come easy, it was really hard fought. Tommy drove a brilliant race, he made one mistake on the last corner, which had everyone going crazy thinking he was going to lose the lead but he had more than 200 yards advantage, so he could recover from a spin and still win the race. It was a fantastic job from Tommy, a fantastic job from Jérôme, and for Albatec second and fourth in the championship is great – we’ve shown that although we were behind the factory teams at the start of the season, we caught up in the last two races – in Barcelona and Latvia – we’re not afraid of the factory cars.”
Tommy Rustad, driver Albatec Racing #24 :
“I’m very, very happy for Albatec Racing, all the mechanics, everybody in the team, HTB and my sponsors in fact everyone that has worked hard this year to get a victory. I’m so proud and so happy to be a part of Albatec. We had good speed on Saturday in dry conditions and everything worked well with the car, so I was quite satisfied with qualification. On Sunday it was raining, of course it was the first time for everyone in wet conditions here and in Q3 I finished fourth. I started from the outside line in both third and fourth qualifying races and it was difficult to get early into the first corner so I just pushed as hard as I could to try and keep my positions in the qualifying heats, and finished P4 overall. In the semi-final I started from the first row, I had quite a bad start getting out of fifth so chose the joker on the first lap and I managed to drive through the field and finish first which was a very good race from my side of it, I guess we did everything right with the joker and the speed was good.
“Into the Final I started in the first row alongside Jérôme, and I had a better start than him. Peter Hedstrom took the lead and was in front of me, he braked a bit earlier than I expected and I hit him from behind. I was pushed also from behind from some other cars so I couldn’t do anything but wait and I was sure I was going out of the track but for some reason Hedstrom spun and the track was open and I could take the lead at the first corner, so I was a bit lucky there. I pushed as hard as I could and the car was working excellently and took the joker on the penultimate lap. In the last corner I made a mistake and nearly spun but managed to survive and take the win.”
Jérôme Grosset-Janin, driver Albatec Racing #74 :
“Thanks to the amazing job by the team we performed well in tricky conditions so I’m very happy with that. In the final I started from pole position but I noticed they were putting down an absorbent which wasn’t ideal for a good start. Unfortunately, I made a little mistake which cost me a lot, because I could have been on the podium with Tommy. Motorsport is like this.
“I’m very happy to retain my vice-champion title with Albatec because that was the target this weekend and we did it against Tord Linnerud who was a very hard player with us. That was the most important thing for me this weekend. We discovered a very beautiful event with the Latvian organisation, the track was very good, even when it was raining cats and dogs this morning, so I am very happy with this. Congratulations to Tommy on winning the event for the team, I will now enjoy my result and start to prepare for 2017 because next season will be another fight.”
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