Audi flies high at Silverstone

The first FIA World Rallycross Championship (World RX) round ever to be held at Britain’s Silverstone didn’t disappoint, with an exciting weekend of racing and a tremendous result for the EKS Audi Sport team.

In only his fourth event for the team, young Audi ‘pilot’ Andreas Bakkerud literally took off, mastering the monster jump (the biggest in the entire competition) and showing his skill on the specially constructed track. 

Thousands of spectators celebrated for three long days the Speedmachine festival, with some of the closest racing of the season to date. For the third time this year, both EKS Audi Sport drivers qualified for the final featuring the best six. Starting alongside each other on the second row in their Audi S1 EKS RX quattro race cars, Bakkerud held a better line in turn one and managed to secure his first podium – second position – just 0.859 seconds behind race winner Johan Kristoffersson in a Volkswagen.

After ‘inheriting’ third place at the season opener in Barcelona due to his teammate being excluded from the results, his first ‘real’ podium at the wheel of the Audi in Silverstone was something very special for the Norwegian. 

“It feels great to be on the podium for the first time with my new team and Audi,” said Bakkerud. “The pressure on me has now dropped. First I had to familiarise myself with the new car, but I’ve now achieved this thanks to the fantastic support from the entire team. I look forward confidently to the rest of the season, because now my favourite race tracks are looming on the horizon and my home race in Hell.”

Teammate Mattias Ekström finished just off the podium in fourth, but was happy with the way the team performed as a whole.

“There was no jackpot for me today, but we took a good haul of points. And of course the podium for Andreas is fantastic, he said.

“Overall as a team we can be satisfied because we have made progress. Our starts are now more consistent.”

The result sees Andreas Bakkerud climb to third in the overall standings with Ekström in fifth, while EKS Audi Sport moves up to second place in the team standings.