Istanbul World Rallycross: Audi's Mattias Ekstrom ahead after heats

Fastest in Saturday's free practice, Ekstrom was only once not top of the timesheets in the four heat races.

That blip came when Timmy Hansen topped the order in heat one for the Hansen-run Peugeot team.

Hansen ended up second overall heading into the semis, with Andreas Bakkerud and Reinis Nitiss showing an upturn in form from the Ford Olsbergs MSE team, the two Fiesta drivers holding third and fourth.

Championship leader Petter Solberg admits to not being able to find his usual rhythm on the Istanbul Park circuit but pulled off a brave move around the outside of Turn 1 in his heat four race to set second fastest time and qualify fifth.

He leads Johan Kristoffersson and Timur Timerzyanov, who a ding-dong battle in their heat four encounter.

Robin Larsson claims not to be overly fond of the technical Turkish circuit but dominated his heat four race ahead of Max Pucher and PG Andersson and made it into the semis in eighth position.

Andersson couldn't pass Pucher during the heat and was unable to move into a semi-final qualifying position.

Neither could his Marklund Motorsport team mate Toomas Heikkinen, who retired from heat three after a heavy accident with Davy Jeanney and ended up 14th overall.

The heat three incident was caused by Jeanney getting squeezed into the wall on the outside of the first corner, and Heikkinen having nowhere to go and collecting Jeanney's Peugeot.

Both Marklund Motorsport and Team Peugeot-Hansen did a remarkable job to get the cars onto the grid for heat four, and Jeanney made it into the semis in 10th.

Also in the top 12 for the second time this season is former World Touring Car Championship driver Rene Munnich in 12th.

SEMI-FINAL LINE-UP:

1 Mattias Ekstrom
2 Timmy Hansen
3 Andreas Bakkerud
4 Reinis Nitiss
5 Petter Solberg
6 Johan Kristoffersson
7 Timur Timerzyanov
8 Robin Larsson
9 Anton Marklund
10 Davy Jeanney
11 Tord Linnerud
12 Rene Munnich