Bakkerud certain it's possible to catch Ekstrom and Solberg

Bakkerud is currently the form driver in World RX, heading into the seventh round of the championship, which begins at the GP3R circuit in Trois-Rivieres, Canada today.

Driving for Ken Block’s Hoonigan Racing Division team, Bakkerud won rounds five and six in Norway and Sweden, the first victories for the new-for-2016 Ford Focus RS RX.

“It’s hard to say. I’ve taken 59 points from the last two races, if I can continue that then for sure it can be possible to catch them,” said Bakkerud, when asked by Motorsport.com, if he can challenge for the 2016 title.

“For me, this is the first year when I think we can all see how good Mattias and Petter really are. Every start, every race, every semi-final, they are up there.

"You need to have the full package to be there all the time. I’m trying to work with that stuff and I’m getting closer but I’ve never had a whole year when I’ve been at the top all the time yet,” he added. 

Bakkerud climbed to third overall in the points table thanks to his pair of victories, and is 32 points behind leader Ekstrom.

“I didn’t expect to win both of those events – they are big events in the rallycross season. Sweden was very hard with a double puncture in Q1 but we proved that we can fight back again,” he said.

“For sure I feel [the] self confidence from winning, but at the same time I have never been really quick here [in Canada] before.

"I’m really excited to see where I am at this weekend, Last year if I had been more experienced driver I could have done a better result here," he said.

“Hopefully I am better on the loose here than I was last year. It’s the longest straight of the year here too, so it’s high top speed to and quite technical as well. I think we can do something good.”

The former European Syper1600 champion says his ambition is to finish in the top three of the series, with the long-term aim of becoming World RX Champion, having grown up in the paddock.

“I dream of the overall podium, I grew up in this paddock watching Martin Schanche, Ludvig Hunsbedt, Per Eklund and Kenneth Hansen and I want to be winning the title like they did.

"We still have much to improve on but we’re definitely getting closer, even thought we have only done one day of testing this year.”