Hansen World RX Team has continued its unprecedented winning run in the FIA World Rallycross Championship, racking up a third consecutive one-two finish with Timmy and Kevin Hansen at the famous Lohéac circuit in France. After a strong start to the season with one-two finishes in Spain and Sweden – with Kevin and Timmy winning one event each – the team kept its unprecedented winning streak going in France with another formation finish at the third round of the World RX season. The brothers had started first and second on the grid in the final after stellar runs in their respective semi-finals, taking a win apiece in the lead up to the Lohéac decider. Timmy’s excellent start off the grid in his semi-final wasn’t quite enough to get past Johan Kristoffersson and he found himself looking behind to defend from Timo Scheider. But a pass on the last lap as Kristoffersson nursed a mechanical problem to the finish line bagged Timmy pole position for the final. That semi-final win marked a superb recovery after a difficult start to qualifying. With a strategy geared towards having fresh tyres for qualifying four and the finals, Timmy pulled a stunning time out of the bag when it mattered most to top qualifying four and give himself a critical front-row start for his semi-final. It was a similar story for Kevin in the early sessions, with some strong pace leading to a string of top four times but no session wins, placing him fourth in qualifying and on the outside of the front row for the second semi-final. A blistering start off the grid launched Kevin into the lead of his semi-final race, vanishing into the distance to bank six points and a spot alongside Timmy on the front row for the final. From there the brothers worked together to maximise the team’s result, running side-by-side through the first two turns at the start of the final before Kevin pulled in behind at the turn three hairpin. Timmy’s second victory of the season has extended his championship lead over Kevin to 10 points, who in turn has a 17-point advantage over nearest challenger Krisztián Szabó in third. Hansen World RX Team’s tally in the teams’ championship has already hit the 160-point mark, extending their lead over GRX-SET to 51 points after three rounds.

Timmy Hansen, Driver, #21 Peugeot 208 WRX

“Even though I am the guy in the driver’s seat, I have to give credit for this victory to my team. The effort, the energy, the knowledge from our mechanics and engineers made all the difference today. The car wasn’t there in the first few qualifying sessions, not only in terms of raw pace but also the feeling it was giving me. A new set of Öhlins dampers and set-up changes before Q4 made the 208 come alive and made a huge difference. “In terms of teamwork, we have to speak about Kevin as well. We had a plan going into the final and we executed it perfectly. At this stage of the season we need to get as many points on the board as possible for the team – the Hyundais found more pace this weekend and Johan was as fast as ever, so when opportunities appear for us to take maximum scores, we have to take them. It’s a shame Johan had an issue but this is the game. “Last month’s victory at home in Höljes was the best feeling after winning the title in 2019 but a victory in Lohéac is always close behind! It is absolutely magic to have another 1-2 finish. The fans here are great and getting the chance to take another win in front of them is always a fantastic experience.”

Kevin Hansen, Driver, #9 Peugeot 208 WRX

“This is another great result and it shows what my real pace was throughout the weekend. I feel I was a bit unlucky in not being able to show my pace throughout qualifying as I felt fast and the car was great – but we kept working hard and we got the front by the end. “I’d like to go out and win the final but we had an equal chance to be the leader – pole position goes to the winner of the faster semi-final, and this time around that was Timmy. If it had been the other way around then he would be supporting me. It’s our job to get the team the best result possible and we can only achieve that by working together. And in fairness, I had to be on my maximum pace to keep up with Timmy in the final! Maybe there was a chance or two for me to dive down the inside but ensuring the one-two result is more important. “It’s crazy to think we have four one-two results now across both World RX and Extreme E, after our podiums in Greenland a week ago. This run could end in Latvia of course but let’s see what happens – if we keep getting all the details right and continue with the right mindset, who knows what comes next?”

Kenneth Hansen, Team Principal

“This was a tough one and in some ways, we are fortunate to score this result. But it also shows the professionalism and strength of our team. Even when we didn’t have the fastest car out of the box we kept working away to find improvements and make some breakthroughs on pace. And when we got to the ‘business end’ of the weekend, we got our cars to where they needed to be. “I think our strategy calls were the right ones regardless of what happened to our rivals. That was especially important because of how much of a difference fresh tyres make at Lohéac. We had to put Timmy on a fresh set of tyres for Q4 instead of saving them for the semi-finals to get him a slot on the front row and it worked out perfectly. It put him under a lot of pressure from Scheider on fresh rubber in the first semi-final of course but Timmy is a world champion and knows how to deal with that. “We would like to be the fastest team from the first time our cars turn a wheel on Saturday morning, of course. But we are doing everything else right at the moment and for that, I’m extremely proud of everyone in our team.”