Andreas Bakkerud ‘used every trick in the book’ in hunt for Silverstone win

Andreas Bakkerud was left devastated after throwing away he best chance of winning for the first time in World Rallycross this year at Silverstone.

The Monster Energy RX Cartel driver swept the second half of qualifying, and went on to lead much of the final, only to lose out to Timmy Hansen when he didn’t immediately react to the Swede’s decision to joker early.

“It sucks to spray champagne and be not happy,” Bakkerud said. “I felt I had it almost in my pocket today, and then when I saw Timmy coming around the outside after the joker … if you see my onboard, I was actually shaking my head into turn two because he was driving so defensively, I was like ‘oh come on!’”

“I tried to do everything I could, I tried to use every trick I had in the book to be able to go fast, and I think the guys could see that I had some issues, especially in turn seven and going into the joker,” he added. “We were very close in Belgium, but Belgium was okay because I didn’t have the speed for Timur (Timerzyanov, Spa winner), this weekend I really do feel we had the speed to win.”

While he showed strong pace, Bakkerud also had to contend with handbrake issue for much of Sunday, which caused he car to stall in corners and left the Norwegian driver struggling to rotate his Audi S1.

“This sucks. Obviously I had a great race today, it felt very very good,” he said.  “In the semi-final we had some issues with the handbrake, so every time I pulled the handbrake the car stalled, and then obviously I was driving without the handbrake for the semi and the final.”

Despite missing out on the win, Bakkerud was still positive with the team’s result, with RX Cartel claiming its fourth-straight podium finish, and he’s hoping to continue the run at his home event in Hell next month.

“RX Cartel are once again on the podium, four in a row which is really cool, and both cars in the final, so from a team perspective I’m very happy,” said Bakkerud. “We go to Norway with high expectations as always and as long as my name is on the entry list I’m there to win and hopefully we can give the guys a run for their money.”