With Simon Tiger sidelined in Riga due to the mechanical issues he suffered at the previous round in Valkenswaard, Viktor Johansson was handed a golden opportunity to seize a commanding lead in the overall standings. Unfortunately, the Mercedes driver was unable to capitalize.
When things go wrong, they really go wrong—a bitter lesson Viktor Johansson experienced firsthand in Latvia just a few days ago. Poised to secure his fourth intermediate classification win in six races, a retirement in the semi-final of Race 1 abruptly halted his forward momentum, while fellow title contender Lucas Gabrielsson suffered a similar fate, also bowing out prematurely.
The following day, Johansson threw everything into reversing the trend, once again topping the intermediate classification ahead of Gabrielsson but mechanical gremlins struck at the worst possible moment during the final stages.
While not a disaster by any means—Johansson still managed to salvage second place on the podium despite only finishing third in the semi-final—the Swede was well aware he’d squandered a prime opportunity to stake his claim on the Open 2WD class.
Out of the 60 points up for grabs over the weekend, Johansson returned home to northern Sweden with 43 on the scoreboard.
“Of course, the feelings are mixed,” admitted Viktor.
“We had found the right rhythm from the very first practice runs, and we set some excellent lap times across both days of qualifying. But unfortunately, on Friday, bolts failed on the driveshaft, bringing our race to a complete stop in the final. Then, in the semi-final of Race 2, even though I was on pole and had made a perfect start, the electrical system cut out completely as I turned left. It came back to life, but after the jump, in another left-hander, the same thing happened again—it kept cutting out almost every lap,” the driver explained after Race 2.
Naturally, those lost points could prove pivotal, giving Simon Tiger every chance of keeping his title hopes alive.
“If I were Simon, I don’t think I’d be too disappointed after this second race. I wasn’t able to score as many points as I would have liked, but that’s motorsport. Sometimes, things are simply out of your hands. Maybe the fact that the car has been in transit since Montalegre and we haven’t been able to work on it in our own workshop like we usually do affected its reliability. It’s possible we missed some details in terms of maintenance. Still, the pace was excellent and the atmosphere here in Riga was incredible. I love this track and, despite the frustrations, it was still a positive day.”
“We’ll leave Riga with plenty of positives, but also with valuable lessons learned from the issues we faced here, which we’ll need to address ahead of the next round in Finland.”