Roberts Vitols took his Citroen C4 to a thrilling win in the sixth round of the Motorsport UK British Rallycross Championship 5 Nations Trophy presented by Cooper Tires  at Lydden Hill. It was not smooth sailing for Vitols who had to overcome technical issues, including an issue with the steering rack that saw him miss the second race.

He remained cool and was able to reach the semi-final where he would line up in a less than ideal position of sixth. In that race the Peugeot 208 of Thorne was dominant, as was the Ford of Tohill in the other semi. Naturally the pair would line up at the front for the fina.

It was a great start for Ollie O’Donovan, whose Ford Fiesta took the lead into the first corner from Tohill and Thorne with Vitols fourth. Then it came down to strategy. Vitols took an early joker – on lap two to give him some free air and to chase down the leaders. It was a decisive move. As Tohill and Thorne dived for the joker lap, Vitols slotted into second behind O’Donovan. That became first when the last drivers took their jokers. It would Vitols third win of the season. Contact with Tohill on lap five saw Irishman O’Donovan pitched into a spin, and drop down the order behind Tristan Ovenden (Citroen DS3), Steve Hill (Mitsubishi Evo) and Mike Sellar (Citroen DS3)

Round seven gets underway on Sunday with O’Donovan holding a slender three-point advantage over his countryman Tohill with Ovenden moving into third ahead of six time champion Julian Godfrey.