UNKORRUPTED continue fight at Finland RX 29.08.2020: FIA WORLD RALLYCROSS CHAMPIONSHIP RD3: FINLAND - KOUVOLA RX Following the long-awaited start of the 2020 FIA World Rallycross Championship season in Sweden with round 1 and 2 last week, the 3rd round of the Championship kicked off today in Ko

FIA WORLD RALLYCROSS CHAMPIONSHIP
RD3: FINLAND - KOUVOLA RX




Following the long-awaited start of the 2020 FIA World Rallycross Championship season in Sweden with round 1 and 2 last week, the 3rd round of the Championship kicked off today in Kouvola, Finland.



Following a quick driver change with Dutch GCK driver Kevin Abbring taking Rokas Baciuska’s seat for the doubleheader weekend, UNKORRUPTED spent the days leading up to the race event busily changing the set-up of both GCK Clio R.S. RX to better suit the picturesque Finnish track. Famous for its technical difficulty especially when wet and having not been part of the Championship calendar since 2014, the track presented an unknown challenge to the UNKORRUPTED squad.
 


The GCK Clio R.S.RX showed promising signs throughout the day for both Abbring and Chicherit but still lacked some performance as the track developed with Guerlain missing out on the semi-finals by only 2 points, while a broken prop shaft in the last qualifier ended Abbring’s weekend early.





GUERLAIN CHICHERIT
P14 OVERALL

Q1 P16 / Q2 P13 / Q3 P12  



Having struggled with grip throughout the first qualifier, the second race of the day saw Guerlain cross the finish line in 2nd, bringing him up from P16 to P13. He managed to gain another point in his 3rd qualifier, posting the 12th fastest time but overall points had him in P14, with 2 points out on a semi-final spot.
 

“We saw some encouraging signs of going in the right direction today but still have quite some way to go to get the pace up to where we need it to be. It’s a shame to be only 2 points away from making the semis but we’re taking every bit of data possible at the moment to turn these changes around as quickly as we can and will take on round 4 of the Championship tomorrow trialling two very different solutions on each Clio to be able to speed up development and troubleshoot more effectively.”, Chicherit added.
    





KEVIN ABBRING
P18 OVERALL
Q1 P13 / Q2 P17 / Q3 P18




Abbring put down a great start in his first qualifier but his car lacked grip still, putting him in P13 overall.
While Kevin’s Clio showed better performance in the 2nd qualifier, he was stuck in traffic impacting his overall time and dropping him in the standings to P17. Disaster struck in the third qualifier, which saw the car’s prop shaft break in lap 1 over the jump causing him to retire from the race and finish round 3 of the Championship in P18.
 


“I do feel we managed to improve the car since last week and again for Q2. We made a big step and a lot of changes and can see the changes come through positively although there’s still some way to go. The prop shaft breaking in the 3rd qualifier was upsetting for us as a team, as every lap at the moment is so important and required for us to go through in detail and make further changes to optimise the car.



Of course it’s frustrating to not be fighting for the final yet but I do think we are making steps towards this and will not give up. Let’s see what tomorrow brings.”, Abbring commented.




Abbring previews Kouvola RX


Kevin Abbring will be racing in the UNKORRUPTED Clio R.S. RX alongside Guerlain Chicherit this weekend in Finland, so we asked him to give us a little preview of the Kouvola Circuit - a track that hasn't been used in World RX since 2014!






www.gc-kompetition.com/unkorrupted - also photos