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Euro RX: Round-up from Belgium

Sweden's Kevin Hansen won the first round of the FIA European Rallycross Championship at Mettet in Belgium on Sunday, driving a Peugeot 208 Supercar on his maiden appearance in Euro RX.

You can watch full highlights of the FIA European Rallycross Supercar Championship season opener in Belgium and the Euro RX TouringCar category at the event on the brand-new OTT [over-the-top content] highlights programme tonight [Tuesday May 17 at 19.00 BST and 20.00 CET] being launched on the FIA World Rallycross Championship YouTube channel. 

Hansen started on the front row of the grid for the final, alongside pole sitter and 2015 championship runner-up Jerome Grosset-Janin, who had won each of the four qualifying races and the first semi-final. The Frenchman took the lead of the final, but was jumped by reigning RX Lites Cup champion Hansen when the pair took their jokers, Hansen on lap four and Grosset-Janin on lap five.

"I was thrilled to win the final on my European Rallycross Championship debut," said Hansen. "My weekend didn't get off to the best of starts when I had a big smash at the start of the first qualifying heat. After that though, I showed good speed and felt confident. I just needed to get fresh air. I managed to do that in the final and that helped me to go on and win."

Norway's Tord Linnerud finished third, with Hungarian Lukacs Kornel fourth and 2015 Euro RX champion Tommy Rustad fifth. Joni-Pekka Rajala finished second at the Intermediate Classification in his first outing in an Eklund Motorsport Volkswagen Beetle, despite a puncture in Q4, and made it into the final but retired on the second lap.

Zdroj: fiaworldrallycross.com