Hockenheim World Rallycross: Sebastien Loeb on top again on day two
Sebastien Loeb continued his strong start to the Hockenheim round of the World Rallycross Championship on day two of the event by securing pole position for Sunday's first semi-final
Loeb won his Q3 race on Saturday but was pipped to fastest time by Petter Solberg, the two-time champion fighting back after damaged sustained in Q2 from contact with Andreas Bakkerud at Turn 1.
Solberg repaid his PSRX and Volkswagen Motorsport mechanics' late evening shift to repair his VW Polo with the fastest Q3 run, before recording the second-fastest time in Q4 behind Loeb's team-mate Timmy Hansen.
Hansen's fastest time ensured a Team Peugeot-Hansen one-two at the top of the order, with Loeb remaining first overall despite only managing seventh in Q4 after a slow start.
As a result of his benchmark time, Loeb will start the first semi-final from the front while he also picked up the maximum available 16 qualifying points in Germany.
Solberg's strong day two showing elevated him to fifth overall, two places behind his Swedish team-mate Johan Kristoffersson.
The Portugal podium finisher chased Loeb hard in the last Q3 race and started on the outside in his Q4 race, in which he enjoyed a close battle with points leader Mattias Ekstrom - who finished between the PSRX Volkswagen Sweden pair in fourth overall.
Having also driven in the opening DTM race of the season earlier in the day, Ekstrom just pipped Kevin Eriksson to race victory in Q3 to also climb the order in the World RX Intermediate standings.
Timo Schieder - the second double DTM champion in the World RX field alongside Ekstrom - came out on top of an early battle in Q3 with STARD team-mates Janis Baumanis and Timur Timerzyanov.
Having been seventh in Q3, he was fifth in Q4 and climbed to sixth overall after the qualifying stages, two places ahead of Timerzyanov.
Scheider's MJP Racing colleague Kevin Eriksson also made it into the top 12, in 10, having battled with Loeb in Q4.
Hoonigan Racing Division team owner Ken Block made the semi-final cut too, but Bakkerud's torrid qualifying race form continued on Saturday evening and he will miss a World RX semi-final for the first time since the Belgian round a year earlier.
Watch Sunday's World RX action from Germany live on Sunday in the UK from 09:00 on Motorsport.tv, channel 447 on Sky and 545 on Virgin Media
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