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Flashback: Last time out at Mettet RX

The third round of the FIA World Rallycross Championship presented by Monster Energy takes place this weekend in Belgium. As the teams and drivers prepare for the third running of a World RX event at the Mettet circuit, we take a look back to the 2015 event.

Finland's Topi Heikkinen had won the Belgian round of the championship in 2014, driving for the Marklund Motorsport team and repeated his success again last season with a lights-to-flight victory to become the third different winner of the season.

Heikkinen started on pole position for the final, alongside then team mate PG Andersson but while Heikkinen led at the first corner, Andersson ran wide and lost ground. Championship leader Petter Solberg started on the second row of the grid after jumping the start in the semi-final and having to take two joker laps. Amazingly, despite the penalty, Solberg finished second in the semi-final and climbed to second at the first corner of lap one in the final, while Mattias Ekstrom got involved in the first corner mêlée and damaged the front of his Audi, causing him to retire on lap two.

While Heikkinen won, Solberg finished second and Latvia's Reinis Nitiss completed the podium driving an OlsbergsMSE Ford Fiesta. Nitiss' team mate Andreas Bakkerud made it three final appearances in a row and finished fifth. Andersson recovered to finish between the OMSE pair in fourth. Sweden's Johan Kristoffersson had led the first semi-final but was slowed with a puncture, a similar fate befalling Timmy Hansen.

As is the case this weekend, the first round of the FIA European Rallycross Championship took place at Mettet 12 months ago. France's Jerome Grosset-Janin won the final ahead of Norway's Ole-Christian Veiby and Hungary's Tamas Karai.

Zdroj: fiaworldrallycross.com