#YellowSquad and Sjökvist claim RX2e silver medal at Estering finale
Swedish talent Isak Sjökvist and the #YellowSquad team entered the FIA RX2e series finale at the legendary Estering in a three-way fight for the all-electric FIA World Rallycross Championship support category title, and with a brilliant performance came within meters of claiming the crown.
Third in the series standings entering the event at the Buxtehude circuit, Sjökvist delivered a strong performance throughout the weekend, consistently inside the top three positions in the heats despite never even having tested at Estering, to qualify second in the Ranking classification after four heats, crucially ahead of the championship leader.
Victory in the semi-finals ahead of two World RX regulars set Sjökvist up for a title show-down in the final, but having made a good start, a brave outside manoeuvre in the infamous first corner didn’t pay off and Sjökvist ran third throughout the race. Matching the pace of the leading pair from start to finish, Sjökvist just missed out on the championship title, but took home the silver medal.
In the sister #YellowSquad machine, Australian rally and Extreme E star Molly Taylor returned to RX2e for a second event in a row supported by E.ON and Veloce, and once again improved with every outing on track. However, contact from other cars meant she was forced into the wall in Heat 3, putting her out of the race altogether, and again in the semi-finals, where she was removed from contention for qualifying for the final and her results didn’t reflect her performance.
Sjökvist said: “I am quite devastated to lose the championship but we are all fighting to become the best drivers we can and I tried to pull out everything I had this weekend and enjoy every second. It felt great throughout the whole weekend, the competitiveness is so, so high in RX2e, and it’s always the small margins that make a big difference.
“In the semi-final I actually drove away from Niclas Grönholm (World RX driver) and tried to get the best spot possible for the final, but Tommi Hallman did a great job on the inside of the grid in the final. I tried going around the outside but it didn’t come off. Nils (Andersson) deserves the championship. It’s been a pleasure to race him this year but I’m hungry for more and they’d better be prepared because I’m coming back to get them.”
Taylor said: “It’s been both a really positive and also a frustrating weekend. Overall we’ve made great progress in terms of pace, so I’m really happy to have been able to fight on that side. In terms of the races, today has been a bit of carnage, being turned into the wall twice, so its frustrating to miss some track time and not be able to convert the speed I know we have. But this programme has been all about learning and I can safely say I’ve done a lot of that!
“I’m really grateful to E.ON, Veloce, #YellowSquad, Kevin (Hansen) and Isak for making this possible. Rallycross is such a different world, so it’s been cool to get an insight into what it’s all about and I hope this is just the beginning of my time here.”
Färén added: “We came here with a single goal for Isak and he drove very well. Unfortunately it only just wasn’t enough to take the championship title. Of course, we are disappointed not to win, but we can be proud of our performance this weekend. We did what we could and we drove a fair race.
“Thanks to a positive test in Sweden between Belgium and Germany, our drivers came here with a positive mindset and really had good performances here.
“Molly is improving all the time in this new environment, and Isak was a different driver to Belgium. He should be proud of his weekend. I hope we can continue to work with both Molly and Isak in the future.”
