Unfortunately for Flying Finn Topi, he wasn’t quite able to put up the kind of fight his fans have grown accustomed to seeing from him after a rare mechanical failure slowed his Marklund Motorsport Volkswagen Polo RX Supercar when he had his sights firmly set on a second World RX race victory in 2014.

Starting the first semi-final full of hope after completing the heats fifth in the standings, landing a jump in the early stages would prove the 23-year-old’s undoing. ”It was all going well until my driveshaft broke after a jump,” said Topi. ”After that it was just matter of bringing the car to the finish line in fifth place, which obviously was not the result I was looking for after the pace and promise we’d shown up until that point.

”I was not always the fastest but my speed throughout the weekend was very consistent and close to the very top. We knew we had the speed for a podium, even the win. I was full of confidence for my semi-final but it wasn’t to be. I want to congratulate Petter on a great and consistent job all season because I know just how hard you have to work and how good you have to be to become a rallycross champion. My focus now is on helping Marklund Motorsport to the teams’ title on the last two rounds in Turkey and Argentina and, of course, keeping my second place in the drivers’ standings.”

Provisional World RX drivers’ standings (after round 10 of 12):

1 Petter Solberg 212 points
2 Toomas Heikkinen 175
3 Reinis Nitiss 167
4 Timmy Hansen 152
5 Timur Timerzyanov 148
6 Andreas Bakkerud 146