LYDDEN HILL, UK: This past weekend, HRD’s Ken Block and Andreas Bakkerud had their best race weekend of the 2017 World RX Championship to-date, during Round 5 at Lydden Hill in the U.K.
Both drivers showed excellent pace throughout the course of the entire weekend, posting well in both practice on Saturday, as well as during their respective Q1 and Q2 races that day. Block in particular had an exciting Q2 race, mixing it up with 9-time WRC Champion Sebastien Loeb much to the delight of the crowd. At the end of Saturday, Bakkerud headed into Sunday’s racing sitting 4th overall and Block tied for 6th with Loeb.
Sunday’s racing saw both drivers still on the same quick pace, with both easily making it into the Semi-Finals. Unfortunately, both of the HRD drivers were in the same Semi, making the chances of both advancing slightly more difficult. In the end, Bakkerud nabbed 2nd in their Semi with Block narrowly missing out on 3rd. Despite missing the final, the result was Block’s best finish of the season, ending the event 7th overall.
Bakkerud then started in the Final on row 2, directly behind Pole and ran a blisteringly quick race, which he finished 3rd overall and earning himself his second podium of the season (Bakkerud had previously taken 3rd during Round 1 in Barcelona). With the results of the weekend, both HRD drivers now sit 6th (Bakkerud) and 7th (Block) overall in the Championship standings.
“I’m stoked that Andreas was able to land on the podium again,” said Block. “I’m disappointed that I wasn’t able to join him since I was having a pretty good weekend out here at Lydden in terms of my pace and speed, but that’s how it goes some weekends. We've struggled a bit to find the right setups this season so far and I think we’ve finally got things going in the right direction, as shown by the results here at Lydden. We’re both looking forward to Norway however, as it’s one of our favorite tracks of the season and I think it favors our cars more than some of the other tracks.”
The next round of action sees the HRD drivers heading to Hell, Norway, in two weeks, a track where Bakkerud had a clean sweep last year. Be sure to tune in and see if he’s able to do so again in 2017.
