Lydden Hill World RX: Solberg remains top depsite Hansen Q4 win

Solberg had swept the fastest times throughout the day, but was denied in Q4 by Peugeot's Timmy Hansen.

Solberg's team-mate Kristoffersson made a better launch than Solberg to take the lead into Turn 1, as behind Mattias Ekstrom passed Sebastien Loeb on the inside on entry into Chessen's Drift.

Solberg took his joker on the third lap and returned to the main circuit ahead of Andreas Bakkerud who, having already taken his longer lap, was on the rear of the Volkswagen pair's coat tails to the finish.

Kristoffersson took his joker on the final tour and returned to the lead but his time wasn't enough to depose Hansen from top of the Q4 order, as he ended Volkswagen's run of fastest times in the qualifying stages.

Solberg and Kristoffersson had filled the top two positions in the earlier Q3, where for the first time in the weekend the pair took their jokers on different laps.

Reigning champion Ekstrom had matched his day one performance with third behind Solberg and Kristoffersson in Q3 but lost out to Loeb in his Q4 race and finished eighth fastest.

Hansen's victory in Q4 meant that Ekstrom drops below him to fourth in the overall standings, ahead of Bakkerud and Hoonigan Racing Division team owner Ken Block.

Block sealed the position with the sixth fastest time behind team-mate Bakkerud in Q3, after a last lap battle with Sebastien Loeb.

The American driver then finished second to Hansen in their Q4 race, but was investigated after he cut the apex of the joker lap section.

That apex was again the scene of drama when Reinis Nitiss followed his lead, the pair were then both hit with time penalties that dropped them to fifth and 12th in Q4.

Block still made it to the semi finals in seventh behind Sebastien Loeb, but Nitiss was unable to recover from missing his joker in Q1 and crashing in Q2.

British Touring Car Championship driver Andrew Jordan endured a difficult Sunday after colliding with the barriers in the warm-up, before a propshaft failure on his MJP Racing Ford Fiesta resigned him to 18th quickest in Q3.

He recovered in Q4 after taking an early joker to set the eighth fastest time which became seventh after Nitiss's penalty. He was then ensured ninth in the intermediate classification ahead of the semi-finals.

Jordan's team-mate Kevin Eriksson also made it into the knock-out races in eighth despite a Q4 half-spin.

EKS RX driver Heikkinen made it into the semi-finals after a similar spin to Eriksson in Q4, finishing in 12th.

STARD team-mates Janis Baumanis and Timer Timerzyanov steered their Ford Fiestas into the top 12, but British driver Guy Wilks in his Polo just missed the cut in 13th.

Wilks finished ahead of Peugeot driver Kevin Hansen and Niclas Gronholm's Fiesta, the pair having faced an uphill challenge to make the semi-finals after day one troubles.