The FIA World Rallycross Championship has started the 2025 season with a massive win for Niclas Grönholm, the fans, and the entire rallycross community. A capacity crowd of over 10,000 fans packed out the legendary Lousada International Circuit in Portugal to see the world’s top RX drivers battle for the first honours in a new era for the category.
Before the main event, the stars of World RX were back on-track this morning for the last two qualifying heats to set up the semis, which then determined the all-important last grid of the weekend.
Reigning champion Johan Kristoffersson was quick out of the blocks to make up for lost qualifying points yesterday and duly maximised his haul in Heat 2. The blistering pace in the #1 car was on show in Q4, where his time was almost half a second better than that of any other driver, and a perfect start in his semi-final launched the ICE-powered KMS machine past his EV rivals, as he held on to win and secure second on the grid for the final contest.
The impressive run of form in Lousada for Finnish ace Grönholm continued from Saturday into Sunday, and saw him take victory in his semi-final, ensuring pole position and the best chance to convert to victory for the CE Dealer Team. Timmy and Kevin Hansen secured second place in their semis to line up alongside one another on the second row, with KMS’s Ole Christian Vieby and Klara Andersson completing the grid in her CE Dealer Team machine.
With the stage set, anticipation was at fever-pitch around the Portuguese circuit, with slightly lower temperatures today doing nothing to cool off the heat of the action on-track. As the lights went out it was neck and neck between the front row starters, with Grönholm edging ahead into turn one. This compromised Kristoffersson’s line just enough to open the door to both Hansen drivers behind, with first Timmy and then Kevin muscling their way through and into the provisional podium places.
Kevin and Johan bolted to the joker lap as they exited the epic banked gravel of turn six, promoting Veiby and Andersson up the provisional order, though the gap to the top two was already up to a couple of seconds.
As the race reached half-distance, the #21 Hansen car in second had closed right in on the leader, but as they began to battle, it looked as though it would bring the rest of the field right back into contention behind. As ever with the fast-paced thrill-a-minute action of rallycross, though, the chasing pack was embroiled in a battle of its own, with Kevin Hansen putting a bold move on Andersson into the hairpin at turn seven, who then had Kristoffersson all over her rear bumper into the final turn, though he couldn’t make a move stick until one lap later with contact taking Klara out of the contention.
As the front three had to take the Joker Lap on the final tour, it set up an epic five-way dive into the final hairpin. The Hansen brothers banged doors at the apex, and as they were both compromised, Ole Christian Veiby made the most of the opportunity to grab third place on the drag to the finish line from Kevin, with Timmy just able to stay ahead in second.
Their battling gave Grönholm just enough breathing space to send his CE Dealer Team car flat-out towards the chequered flag to claim his ninth FIA World Rallycross Championship victory and top of a hugely impressive weekend for the 28-year-old.
Niclas Grönholm, CE Dealer Team, said: “I think it was a perfect rallycross execution – maybe not the absolute pace throughout the weekend, but from Q2 on we had the inside line good launches. I was able to control the race in places, but especially in turn two maybe I was too careful. It was enough this time, but yeah, I’ve been on the go now for one month straight, so I’m going to enjoy some vacation now with my son!”
Timmy Hansen, Hansen World RX Team, said: “I knew going into the last corner that the only way we could get second and third as a team is if I backed off, but at the same time, you’ve got to race right?! We really found the pace here at the end of the weekend with new tyres on the car. I felt faster than Niclas in both the semi and the final, it was just that I tried to play around with my lines to have a better exit than him and be closer on the breaking, but in the end I was always just too close to make a move. We’ll do a deep dive into the race in our Hansen Brothers Podcast which will go out on Thursday!”
Ole Christian Veiby, Kristoffersson Motorsport, said: “I didn’t see that coming! I tried to just follow Niclas and Timmy out front and was able to catch them up a bit in last part. I came out of the joker, saw a huge cloud of dust and then suddenly came out P3. It was now what I was expected from the final, lucky to be on the podium, for sure it’s always nice but we wanted more from this weekend. We struggled compared to the electric cars in the launches and then everything became more difficult as it’s not so easy to overtake here. We improved the launches during the weekend which is good, we have a bit of a new system for this year.”
Emilia Abel, FIA Road Sport Director, said: “It has been a great return for rallycross this weekend in Lousada. I really want to thank the local organisers and ASN here for an incredible job – there is clearly a huge amount of passion for this sport here, the volunteers and officials have been working so hard, and we could not have hoped for a better way to start the 2025 season. It’s big thanks also to the teams and the drivers who have worked with us as we start to build a new momentum, and I hope that the fans watching around track and around the world enjoyed the show!”
Click here to view the provisional results from Round 1 of the FIA World Rallycross Championship.
Click here to view the provisional Championship Standings.
