In the third stage of the FIA European Rallycross Championship season, which took place on August 13 and 14 at the Hellas track in Norway, Jānis Baumanis in the Euro RX1 competition after two exciting days of competition in dry but wet conditions reached the third place in the final race, climbing on the podium for the first time this season.
First podium this season
Jānis Baumanis with the Peugeot 208 prepared by the #YellowSquad team proved his skills already in the first qualification. Having beaten all competitors, including Andreas Bakerudas, Jānis won his race. In order to triumph in the overall standings, only 0.013 seconds were needed against Anton Marklund.
The reply blow failed to be delivered in the next drive. After a long discussion with the start engineer about the engine speed software, Baumanis stayed behind at the start and ended up at the end of the line, but managed to climb up to reach the top ten overall and finish the first day of competition in fifth place.
On Sunday, the inside advantage was used with renewed vigor in the final qualifying race after a good start. Baumanis took the lead and kept his position until the finish. In the last race, Marklund, Bakkerud and McConnell proved to be faster, but Jānis had proven that he can fight for the leading positions in this stage as well.
In the progression round, Bauman had to admit the superiority of Anton Marklund, who started on the inside, but the other competitors were left behind. Jānis had confidently secured his place in the semi-finals. Although Andreas Backerud was faster in it, the steady pace and avoiding mistakes allowed Bauman to earn a place in the final.
In the most important start of the weekend, Baumanis kept up with the leaders and beat Anton Marklund with a great trajectories crossing maneuver, who a moment later had technical problems. After the first lap, Jānis was in the third position behind the hosts Bakeruda and Evjena. After a tense battle for several laps, he failed to find a way past Evjen and finished in an honorable third place.
The stability in the first three stages of the season has allowed Jānis Baumanis to keep the second place in the overall championship standings with 35 points and to beat leader Anton Marklund by one point, who scored 52 points this year. The winner of the Norwegian stage, Andreas Bakkeruds, is two points behind Baumans.
Jānis Baumanis: “Norway continues to be a relatively successful place for us”
Jānis Baumanis: “We started very optimistically. We went very well in training and in the first qualification. It could have been even better if I hadn’t slipped a bit in one of the turns, where I lost more than a tenth of a second. That was enough for Marklund to get ahead of me. After warming up the tires we delayed the procedure for the start of the second race a bit and due to our own mistake the start failed.
The second day started very well already from training. In the third qualifying, the speed on the track seemed good, but the car did not listen as one would like. It seemed that it was at the expense of the tires, so we put three new tires on in the semi-final, but the old troubles continued, which prevented us from going faster. We made a couple of changes to the car between the semi-final and the final, but not enough to improve the speed. I fought as much as I could with the car. Third place is not as sweet as one would like, considering the events at the start of the final. Be that as it may, the first podium this season has been achieved and there is a little joy about it. Norway continues to be a relatively successful place for us. “
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