Circuit de Spa-Francorchamps, Belgium, 2022-10-09 Two-time FIA World Rallycross Championship event-winner Kevin Hansen added another podium finish to the Hansen World RX team’s 2022 tally in the sixth round of the series at the Spa-Francorchamps circuit in Belgium, but the Swedish team left the historic venue disappointed at the overall outcome. Yet again the Hansen team’s 500kW Peugeot 208 RX1e machines were capable of challenging for victory in the first year of a brand-new all-electric era for rallycross’ highest level, the team arguably the class of the field in terms of outright performance across the entire Belgian double-header encounter.   But, as has been the case on so many occasions in 2022, the equation between performance and results did not work out in the Hansen outfit’s favour, aside from Kevin Hansen’s rostrum appearance in Saturday’s final – ensuring that the triple World RX Teams’ champions maintained a record of being on the podium at every event in the 2022 season so far. 2019 World RX Drivers’ Champion Timmy Hansen led the all-important final from the front in round six of World RX on Saturday, until being spun out of contention by getting hit from the cars behind, while in round seven on Sunday, the elder of the two Hansen brothers was put out of contention by contact that broke his car’s rear suspension in the semi-finals. Kevin Hansen meanwhile lost out in the battle for position in the opening corner of Sunday’s final and dropped to fourth early on, the position he would hold to the finish. Despite the results, in a closely-fought 2022 season Kevin Hansen is now second in the Drivers’ standings, just three points ahead of Timmy, who is fifth overall, with events in Spain and Germany remaining. The Hansen World RX Team remains second in the Teams’ standings.    

Kenneth HANSEN Hansen World RX Team – Team Principal

“It’s a long time since I was so disappointed. I mean really, really disappointed. Of course it’s a lot up to us to handle things well, but we don’t have the luck, that’s for sure – things are not working our way. There’s not much else to say. We will get stronger again and rekindle the motivation to fight – we will be back but it does not feel good this evening. This was a weekend we should have had at least one win. We will work hard, we will try again, and we know it will turn around, but at the moment this really feels so disappointing.”

Kevin HANSEN Hansen World RX Team – Driver #71

“We obviously wanted more from this weekend, but we were on the pace and there to challenge for the wins. It’s just the small things that affected us, starting in the second position on the grid and not getting the inside for the starts, which was a bit unfortunate. But I’m super proud of the whole team. They did another brilliant double-header. On my side, I really tired everything I had to get our first win of the season but just didn’t have it this weekend. I learned a lot about the car this weekend and it was good to be on the podium on Saturday. I’m looking forward to Barcelona for the next race, it’s a track that has been kind to us in the past and I had my last World RX victory there as well. Hopefully there we can have more luck on our side.”  

Timmy HANSEN Hansen World RX Team – Driver #21

“It felt like we did everything right this weekend, we had great pace, we were the ones to beat. We had great starts and the whole package. But somehow, in a way I cannot understand, both races this weekend ended horribly badly. I got crashed out on Saturday from the lead of the final, then today in the semi-final the contact between me and [Niclas] Gronholm broke a suspension arm and the race was basically over. Contacts ended the weekend. It’s kind of devastating how it can go this bad from such a good event, but I’ve got to bring with me that we do have the whole package and we need to keep on doing what we’re doing. The gap between performance and result this weekend felt huge, but Barcelona next time is one of my favourite tracks and I’m going to give it my everything.”