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Bakkerud leads World RX after heat two in Portugal

Norway's Andreas Bakkerud is leading the season-opening Bompiso Rallycross of Portugal, round one of the FIA World Rallycross Championship presented by Monster Energy, after the event's first two heats. Reigning World RX Champion Petter Solberg is second in his SDRX run Citroen DS3 Supercar while Team Peugeot-Hansen's Timmy Hansen rounds off the top three.

Heavy rain fell on the Montalegre circuit in north-east Portugal today as Bakkerud, who drives for the Ford Olsbergs MSE squad, posted the fastest time in heat one out of the 21 Supercars. Hansen and Solberg finished second and third respectively - separated only by one hundredth of a second as both drivers posted a time of 2m57s.

"I'm happy with my performance today; the conditions were very tricky for the start, so I focused on that," explained leader Bakkerud at the end of day one. "As long as we're top seven in the rest of the heats then we will have good points to get into the semi-finals. For sure I want more speed to come later on and I know we are not even close to the limit yet."

The rain continued for heat two which saw Solberg take the heat win over Bakkerud who was second-quickest. Team Volkswagen-Sweden's Johan Kristoffersson was third quickest, while Marklund Motorsport's PG Andersson clinched fourth place.

It was a dramatic opening day for EKS driver Anton Marklund who rolled his Audi S1 EKS Quattro going into the second lap of the first heat. The Swede returned for heat two but was forced to retire when his car stopped half-way through. Elsewhere, Robin Larsson spun his Audi A3 Supercar going into the Joker Lap and beeched his car in the gravel.

Alx Danielsson had a difficult start on his RX debut with ALL-INKL.COM Muennich Motorsport after suspension problems during free practice meant the ex Formula Renault 3.5 Series Champion was unable to start today's heats.

Super1600 ran three heats today; Set Promotion driver Baumanis was fastest in heat two and second fastest in one and three to claim top spot. Ernestas Staponkus is second in his VW Polo with Russian driver Timur Shigabutdinov third. Dane Ulrik Linnemann was fastest in heats one and three but was excluded from his second heat race and is tenth.

2014 RX Lites Champion Kevin Eriksson picked up where he left off last season with two fastest times in the first heat races, to lead younger brother and Olsbergs MSE team-mate Oliver. Tobias Brink is third and Kevin Hansen fourth.

Former European Rally Champion Krzysztof Holowczyc is fifth on his rallycross debut heading into day two at Montalegre while Norwegian former Super1600 driver Simon Wago Syversen is another who makes his Lites debut in Portugal and is sixth.

Tomorrow's action begins at 9am (local time) with warm-up for all classes. Heats three and four will run from 10.30am, while the Supercar semi-finals and finals are scheduled from 3pm.