Sweden’s Mattias Ekstrom leads the third round of the FIA World Rallycross Championship after the first day of action at Mettet in Belgium.

EKS driver Ekstrom set the fastest time in Q2, backing up his second fastest time in Q1 to top the order at the close of day one for the third event in a row. France’s Sebastien Loeb set his first ever fastest World RX qualifying time in Q1 and is second behind Ekstrom.

World RX Team Austria’s Timur Timerzyanov was second quickest to Ekstrom in Q2 and is third overall with double World RX champion Petter Solberg fifth and 2015 Euro RX Super1600 champion Janis Baumanis sixth after Q2. Anton Marklund, Timmy Hansen, Reinis Nitiss, Kevin Eriksson and Davy Jeanney are all currently inside the qualifying positions for the semi finals. Local ace Francois Duval is inside the top ten in his OlsbergsMSE Fiesta, the Belgian is ninth overall with Q3 and Q4 set to take place tomorrow morning.