Following his crash in Hungary two weeks ago, the team worked on his DS3 up to the very last minute, having the car ready just in time for practice. Doran immediately showed no hesitation to push the car and his competitors to their limits, being top of the leaderboard for the most part of the weekend and showing some incredible racing skills in the process.
Heat 1 saw Doran taking a convincing win and overall top position, which he continued to hold onto through heat 2. Having started pole along with Tanner Foust, Timur Timerzyanov, Davy Jeanney, and Petter Solberg, Doran proceeded to create a nail-biting battle between Solberg, Foust and himself, with Doran crossing the finish line in second position but still holding onto first overall.
”The car feels great,” said Doran, ”it feels good to be this competitive.”
On day two, Liam continued to dominate the leaderboard, showing the fastest times of this weekend in Finland. While Heat 3 saw Liam finishing closely behind Tanner Foust, he remained overall first. The skies opened up for heat 4 and after some incredible wet track racing that brought the crowd to boiling point, Doran managed to qualify for the semi-finals alongside fellow Monster Energy teammate Andreas Bakkerud.
An exciting battle in the semi-finals saw Doran deliver some strong racing that resulted in him reaching the final, which became one of the closest and hardest fought races so far this season.
Solberg led to start and Doran was battling with teammate Andreas Bakkerud as they headed into the turn before the start straight. Timmy Hansen then came out of his joker lap making it three wide.
Doran led amongst these three until a lot of hard contact in lap four resulted in him having to take off some of the pressure. Solberg was out front when he crashed into the barrier, allowing Foust to take the lead and cross the finish line followed by Timerzyanov, Hansen, and Doran.
”My team worked really hard to the get the car fixed in time for this event. We were fast all weekend but unfortunately it didn’t come together to win the final”, said Doran. ”There was a lot of contact this weekend, especially in the final. My car took another beating but that’s Rallycross. I now want to go to Norway and get an even better result. The team deserves it and I’m going to do my best to make it happen.”