Hansen World RX Team rolls into northern France this week on a never-before-seen winning streak, aiming for another victory after becoming the first team ever to take two consecutive one-two finishes in the FIA World Rallycross Championship. A near-perfect start to the season has brought two wins to start the 2021 season. Championship leader Timmy Hansen and Kevin Hansen have one win apiece, while the team is already 40 points ahead of its nearest rival in the teams’ standings. But there’s no time for the team or its drivers to rest on its laurels – less than two weeks since the last round in Sweden, they’re back at the team’s second-home in Lohéac to try and keep the winning streak going. Hansen has exclusively used French cars at the top level of rallycross – both in World RX and Euro RX before it – since the 1993 season, forming a permanent bond with La République and its rallycross fans ever since. All of the team’s 17 World RX victories and three world titles have been achieved with the Peugeot 208 WRX, a testament to our French car’s longevity. Due to COVID-19 restrictions the iconic parade through Lohéac town centre, a highlight of the pre-event build-up, has sadly been cancelled this year. However 10,000 fans have been allowed to spectate at the circuit, bringing some of the event’s legendary atmosphere back in a COVID-safe fashion. While our 208s have had a two-week break from action, Timmy and Kevin have not. They took on the Arctic X-Prix in Greenland and continued their incredible podium streak that began in Barcelona six weeks earlier, finishing first and second for their respective teams ahead of World RX title rival Johan Kristoffersson in fifth. Just as he’d done in World RX of Sweden, Timmy was able to lead from the front to grab his first Extreme E win with team-mate Catie Munnings, while Kevin mounted a stunning comeback from a 30-second penalty to book his place in the final, going on to take second with the help of team-mate Mikaela Åhlin-Kottulinsky. Two consecutive one-two finishes by a single team is already a World RX record – can the brothers make three in a row for the team and four for themselves?

Kevin Hansen, #9 Peugeot 208 WRX

“My goal this weekend is clear – I want to get the lead of the championship back. I feel like the circuit suits me and suits the car but as we saw in Sweden, the grid draw makes such a huge difference. It’s the main reason I am not tied on points with Timmy right now. And annoyingly this is the one thing I can’t control. So I will cross my fingers, my toes, my arms, my eyes if I have to, everything – my grid positions in qualifying last time were terrible and I don’t want to go through that again! “It’s best to focus on the positives though and we have lots of those. Our speed at Höljes shows that our car seems to be competitive everywhere on all surfaces. And my confidence is really high – not only from the feeling the 208 has given me so far this year but also the result in Extreme E last weekend. “It’s a busy schedule for me and Timmy but I’m coming here feeling incredibly fired up after my podium in Greenland. When you come from a position where all looks lost and still get a good result, it feels almost as good as winning. It felt a bit like Höljes, coming from a difficult qualifying to finish second! But it would be nice to start from pole in qualifying, win that session, win the semi and win the final. That would feel even better, I’m sure.”

Timmy Hansen, #21 Peugeot 208 WRX

“This is one of my favourite tracks on the calendar – maybe it helps that our car has always performed well here but it’s a nice circuit regardless. It’s really old-school but also quite a fast track – there’s not many technical corners on the lap aside from the final couple of turns, where lacking precision with your inputs costs a lot of lap time. “It is easy to focus on how fast each team and driver is but what has really made a difference so far this year is reliability and consistency. It’s important we don’t lose sight of that. Getting to the finish line is not always a guarantee but everyone in the team has done a superb job of making sure we’ve finished every race without problems so far this season. I believe that will end up being a key factor when we get to the end of the season. “I am the reigning winner here so of course the target has to be to go out and do the same thing again. Let’s wait and see what happens but I’m optimistic that I will be competitive this weekend.”

Kenneth Hansen, Team Principal

“It is always a special feeling to return to Lohéac, our second home in rallycross. We missed it last year so we’re really glad to be coming back, even if it’s not with quite as many fans as normal. “After the start to the season we have had, there is a target on our back, of course. That’s normal when you manage to finish first and second two events in a row. But it is important that we stay grounded, not get carried away, and apply the same discipline, precision and dedication to our work as a team as we have in the first two rounds.”