Round 5: World RX of Norway, Hell (N)

Date: June 9–10, 2018
Track: Lånkebanen Hell, 30 km northeast of Trondheim
Track length: 1.019 km (Joker Lap: 1.110 km)
Surface: 63 % tarmac, 37 % gravel
Turns: 3 left, 6 right
Longest jump: approx. 16 m
Top speed: approx. 156 km/h
Lap record: Timur Timerzyanov (RUS), 37.731s (2016)
Average speed: approx. 97.22 km/h
Winner in 2018: Johan Kristoffersson (S), 3m 54.906s

Race facts
Hell plays an important part in the history of EKS Audi Sport. This is where the rallycross adventure started on June 14, 2014 for Mattias Ekström’s team. The challenging roller coaster track near Trondheim is not necessarily one of Ekström’s favorite ones. Quite the opposite is true for his Norwegian teammate Andreas Bakkerud. At Hell, he competes in front of his enthusiastic fans. In addition, in 2016, he was the first driver in World RX history to pull off a perfect weekend there on which he won all of his six races and scored the maximum number of points.

2018 flashback

Another podium finish for EKS Audi Sport in the FIA World Rallycross Championship. In Norway, Mattias Ekström in the 580-hp Audi S1 EKS RX quattro celebrated second place and his first podium finish this season. In front of some 24,000 enthusiastic spectators, the two Audi drivers from Team EKS Audi Sport experienced a changeable weekend. Following the first two qualifying sessions on Saturday, Ekström and Bakkerud placed fourth and seventh in the intermediate classification. In the third qualifying on Sunday, Ekström received a five-second penalty due to a collision with Petter Solberg. In Q4, his car stopped on the starting line due to a defect. Even so, in tenth position overall, Ekström made it into the semi-finals together with Andreas Bakkerud. Both Audi drivers clinched second place in their semi-finals. As a result, for the fourth time this year, both drivers from EKS Audi Sport qualified for the final of the top six. Mattias Ekström, who had started alongside Bakkerud from the second row, pulled off with a dream start and after six laps only had to admit defeat to winner Johan Kristoffersson by 0.788 seconds.