The GC Kompetition team has taken its first ever podium in the FIA World Rallycross championship as Jerome Grosset-Janin took third place in the final at Holjes, Sweden in the Megane R.S. RX.
Q4 saw both GCK drivers line up at the start line together again with Guerlain and Jérôme positioned on the outside of this three-man race with Niclas Grönholm in pole position. Following a strong start, Guerlain fought Grönholm into turn 1 and decided to take the joker to create space between them, leaving Jérôme to battle it out with Grönholm until his joker in the last lap. Unfortunately, another broken driveshaft saw Guerlain fall back, finishing in P3 and thus missing out on a semi-final spot whilst Jérôme managed to grab a strong P2, qualifying him for the semi-finals.
Semi-final 2 saw Jerome line up in sixth position on the inside next to Larsson. He immediately followed Timerzyanov into the joker lap, leaving Solberg, Hansen and Bakkerud to race ahead. The following laps saw Jerome battle it out with Timerzyanov until he successfully managed to take over, finishing in P3 and securing his first spot in the final this season.
Heading out to the final as the only private team against the factory teams, Jérôme lined up on the outside next to Ekström, from where he put down a strong start, heading straight for the joker lap. A mechanical issue for Kevin Hansen saw Jérôme move up to P5 and whilst repeated contact between Ekström and Timmy Hansen resulted in Timmy being pushed off the track, Jérôme drove cleanly to finish the race in P4 behind Ekström, who was hit with a time penalty, earning Jérôme the team’s first ever podium spot with a 3rd place.
“I am so happy the weekend ended this way. Of course I never imagined my first podium happening like this, but we were able to take advantage of all the opportunities that were presented to us today,” said a delighted Grosset-Janin. “It’s the work of the entire team and so many people that has finally paid off. We can’t forget that only three months ago rallycross was a world totally unknown to GCK and Prodrive. Now, we just have to keep up our good work and continue to progress.”