Johan Kristoffersson treated Swedish fans to another dominant performance on home soil Sunday as he captured the sixth round of the FIA World Rallycross Championship at Holjes Motorstadion in the village of Holjes, Sweden.

The defending round and series champion led wire-to-wire in the finale of the “Magic Weekend” for his fifth victory of the season—and third straight—extending his overall lead in the World RX standings to 40 points.

Last year, Kristoffersson set the series record with seven wins in 12 stages during his title-winning campaign. Now, he has six more opportunities to match or exceed that mark and continue his furious rewriting of the World RX history books.

“It’s the fifth (win of this season), so for sure, every one is getting sweeter and sweeter,” said Kristoffersson, who has earned the maximum 30 points in each of the last three rounds. “I really had to fight for this one. It’s a tough track. It’s a challenging track for the car and the team. I felt more and more comfortable in the car the longer the race was going on. In the semifinal, the car was just perfect. In the final, the tires were getting very hot after 12 laps. But it just feels amazing—another 30 points which is the most important.”

Taking your 5th #WorldRX win of 2018 like...#HoljesRX | @JohanKMS88 | @volkswagenms | @MonsterEnergy pic.twitter.com/jIXz7MHLfs

— FIA World Rallycross (@FIAWorldRX) July 1, 2018

While Kristoffersson left little doubt out front in the final, the three-car battle between Timmy Hansen, Andreas Bakkerud, and Mattias Ekstrom to round out the podium was fierce for all six laps. 

In the race’s final series of turns, the three drivers were stacked up in order before Bakkerud made a brilliant pass underneath Hansen to pull away for second place. However, when Ekstrom attempted to make a similar pass of his own on Hansen soon after, the maneuver ended in contact—and controversy—as Hansen’s car was pushed off the track.

World RX officials reviewed the incident and demoted Ekstrom from third place to sixth following the race due to "unsportsmanlike behavior." Previous fourth-place finisher Jerome Grosset-Janin was elevated onto the podium in third.

“When everybody came (together) after the Joker (lap) merge, I think Timmy had some issues because it looked like he started to lose pace,” Ekstrom said prior to the announcement of the penalty. 

“Andreas got by him on the left side, and down the hill, I wanted to go on the right side. I felt there was space on the inside, so I went in and we touched wheel-to-wheel a little bit. But I stayed on track and I think there was space enough on the outside. But I haven’t seen what happened to him so I’ll have to look at the pictures, but definitely, it was hardcore to the very end.”

BREAKING: @mattiasekstroem has been demoted to sixth place in the Final for 'unsportsmanlike behaviour' after his collision with @Timmy_Hansen. That means the @JeromeGJ and @GCKRX pick up their first ever #WorldRX podium finish! Congratulations! pic.twitter.com/yBMIPgpaOT

— FIA World Rallycross (@FIAWorldRX) July 1, 2018

The semifinals also witnessed plenty of carnage, with both Round 3 winner Sebastien Loeb and Petter Solberg finishing outside of the top three and failing to make the final. Loeb, who entered second overall in the standings, finished fourth in Semifinal 1, while Solberg led four laps in Semifinal 2 before having to pull out due to mechanical issues.

While the overall series standings are still subject to change further back, there is no doubt surrounding Kristoffersson’s massive 40-point advantage at the top of the points chase. Bakkerud moves up two spots to second overall with 125 points, replacing Loeb, who slides to fifth with 117 points. Solberg remains in third with a 119-point total.

“I love this track, I love this circuit, I love the weather we've had this weekend,” said Bakkerud, who has made the podium at Holjes in every Supercar and Super1600 race he’s entered since 2012. “The Bakkerud BLUE fans are going nuts. There’s so much energy. It’s such an incredible atmosphere to be around.”

The World RX Championship now takes a five-week hiatus before resuming for Round 7 at the Grand Prix de Trois-Rivières in Quebec, Canada.

World RX of Sweden