Mattias Ekstrom reclaimed the World Rallycross Championship lead by storming to victory at the Barcelona Formula 1 venue on a bad day for rival Petter Solberg.

Ekstrom led the final from start to finish, after an early challenge from Timur Timerzyanov, and kept the advantage when he took a late joker on the fifth of six laps.

The result gives Ekstrom, who is considering skipping the DTM finale at Hockenheim to prioritise his World RX title bid, a 10-point lead over reigning champion Solberg with three rounds to go.

Solberg was only seventh at the intermediate classification following the heats, blaming the officials for the timing of when they watered the track – which he felt left him running in worse conditions for his final qualifying race. He then missed the final as he could only finish fourth in his semi after a battle with former arch World Rally Championship rival Sebastien Loeb, who had to park with a damaged car, and Robin Larsson.

Loeb’s Peugeot team-mate Timmy Hansen had topped the intermediate classification and made progress past Johan Kristoffersson and Timerzyanov – passing both at the joker lap exit – to claim second in the final.

Kristoffersson capitalized on a slowing Timerzyanov to grab third, which moved him back towards title contention given Solberg’s result. He is now 22 points off Ekstrom.

Double DTM champion Timo Scheider made his return to World RX in the Munnich Motorsport SEAT Ibiza vacated by Reinis Nitis, though his weekend ended with 17th in the intermediate classification. That was one place ahead of Ken Block, who had a challenging weekend in his Ford Focus RS RX that included gearbox problems in Q3.