Podium streak continues at first World RX of Riga round
Timmy and Kevin Hansen continued their unbroken run of podium finishes in the FIA World Rallycross Championship, finishing second and third in the first of two rounds at World RX of Riga.
A smart drive in the final by both drivers ensured the pair moved up from third and sixth on the grid of the final to bag podium finishes. They steered clear of early drama as Johan Kristoffersson spun off at turn one and Timo Scheider’s car conked out near the end of the first lap, providing a chance to move further up the order.
With a championship lead to protect Timmy had been careful at turn one, avoiding the collision between Kristoffersson and Grönholm up front. But that had allowed both Timo Scheider and Krisztián Szabó to throw their cars around the outside and demote him to fourth.
Timmy immediately took the joker at the end of lap one to attempt an undercut strategy on Szabó, followed a lap later by Kevin who had also found himself running right behind the second GRX-SET car.
Thanks to his rapid pace Timmy came out well ahead of Szabo to assume second place, while Kevin bravely flung his 208 WRX around the outside of Szabo exiting the final corner to take third place.
It was a fantastic result for the Hansen brothers given their less than ideal positions on the final starting grid.
Qualifying had been tricky as neither car had quite the pace to match fellow World RX regulars Kristoffersson and Grönholm, or returning rival Mattias Ekström.
There had been a stunning Q1 race win for Timmy, as he went from fourth on the grid in full send mode around the outside of everyone to take the lead at turn one. But his pace had only been good enough for fourth overall, both in that session and the overall qualifying order.
It was a similar story for Kevin; while he’d picked up a race win in Q1 of his own he hadn’t been able to top the times, then finished fourth and sixth in the next two sessions.
The tide began to turn in the semi-finals for both drivers. Timmy’s semi-final began with a great run to turn one, passing Ekström for second place and applying pressure on Kristoffersson for the lead until the finish.
Kevin meanwhile had to fight his way into the final. Contact at turn one with Grönholm knocked his car off-balance and allowed Juha Rytkönen to slip past and demote Kevin to fourth. But the fightback began quickly, as Kevin took a lap one joker and then caught up to the back of Rytkönen once more.
Facing pressure from Kevin Abbring right behind, our Kevin muscled his way past Rytkönen at turn four, moving up to third to seal his passage to the final.
Timmy’s championship lead has been extended slightly to 11 points over Kevin, with Kristoffersson now a further 15 points behind in third. Hansen World RX Team’s advantage over GRX-SET in the teams’ championship is now 48 points.
“Second is a great result and sharing a podium with Kevin for the fourth time this year is fantastic. However, it has been quite a difficult day. We struggled with the pace initially but found it towards the end with some very quick lap times. Our set-up window here appears to be quite narrow so the engineers have been doing a great job to help me fine-tune everything and unlock that pace. I also believe there’s still a little more speed to gain tomorrow as well.
“While we’ve been working hard to improve lap time our starts have been fantastic all day. That’s a big reason why we’ve been able to end up in the podium positions at the end of the day. We also avoided taking any big risks and focused on staying out of trouble. That can sometimes cost big results but over time it’s proven to be a worthwhile approach, so I’m continuing with that in mind.
“I’m very happy with the result and the season is continuing to go our way but we’re hungry to do even better tomorrow.”
“Today was not my best day; I struggled a bit with the car setup. Saturday started out OK but it wasn’t quite the strong start I really needed to capitalise on the grid draw. I’m not satisfied with my speed today but that’s rallycross, you have to be clever and deal with the scenario you’re given.
“For tomorrow we’re already working very hard to adjust. There’s definitely performance in our car available to extract and we have some ideas on how to progress tomorrow. Our mechanics and engineers are already working flat out to implement some changes.
“Tomorrow is a new start and there are still opportunities to make further adjustments. We’re hungry to find that extra pace and I want to be faster. Timmy found some good pace later in the day and it was the other way around in France, where I’d found some speed and Timmy had struggled initially. So between us I believe we’ll find the required solutions to pick up the pace tomorrow.”
“We worked really hard today. It’s been quite tricky; in some areas we had great speed from the beginning but there were other areas where still searching for performance. But we’ve learned lots today that will benefit us tomorrow and I’m confident we’ll be able to close the gap.”
Qualifying had been tricky as neither car had quite the pace to match fellow World RX regulars Kristoffersson and Grönholm, or returning rival Mattias Ekström.
There had been a stunning Q1 race win for Timmy, as he went from fourth on the grid in full send mode around the outside of everyone to take the lead at turn one. But his pace had only been good enough for fourth overall, both in that session and the overall qualifying order.
It was a similar story for Kevin; while he’d picked up a race win in Q1 of his own he hadn’t been able to top the times, then finished fourth and sixth in the next two sessions.
The tide began to turn in the semi-finals for both drivers. Timmy’s semi-final began with a great run to turn one, passing Ekström for second place and applying pressure on Kristoffersson for the lead until the finish.
Kevin meanwhile had to fight his way into the final. Contact at turn one with Grönholm knocked his car off-balance and allowed Juha Rytkönen to slip past and demote Kevin to fourth. But the fightback began quickly, as Kevin took a lap one joker and then caught up to the back of Rytkönen once more.
Facing pressure from Kevin Abbring right behind, our Kevin muscled his way past Rytkönen at turn four, moving up to third to seal his passage to the final.
Timmy’s championship lead has been extended slightly to 11 points over Kevin, with Kristoffersson now a further 15 points behind in third. Hansen World RX Team’s advantage over GRX-SET in the teams’ championship is now 48 points.
Timmy Hansen, #21 Peugeot 208 WRX
“Second is a great result and sharing a podium with Kevin for the fourth time this year is fantastic. However, it has been quite a difficult day. We struggled with the pace initially but found it towards the end with some very quick lap times. Our set-up window here appears to be quite narrow so the engineers have been doing a great job to help me fine-tune everything and unlock that pace. I also believe there’s still a little more speed to gain tomorrow as well.
“While we’ve been working hard to improve lap time our starts have been fantastic all day. That’s a big reason why we’ve been able to end up in the podium positions at the end of the day. We also avoided taking any big risks and focused on staying out of trouble. That can sometimes cost big results but over time it’s proven to be a worthwhile approach, so I’m continuing with that in mind.
“I’m very happy with the result and the season is continuing to go our way but we’re hungry to do even better tomorrow.”
Kevin Hansen, #9 Peugeot 208 WRX
“Today was not my best day; I struggled a bit with the car setup. Saturday started out OK but it wasn’t quite the strong start I really needed to capitalise on the grid draw. I’m not satisfied with my speed today but that’s rallycross, you have to be clever and deal with the scenario you’re given.
“For tomorrow we’re already working very hard to adjust. There’s definitely performance in our car available to extract and we have some ideas on how to progress tomorrow. Our mechanics and engineers are already working flat out to implement some changes.
“Tomorrow is a new start and there are still opportunities to make further adjustments. We’re hungry to find that extra pace and I want to be faster. Timmy found some good pace later in the day and it was the other way around in France, where I’d found some speed and Timmy had struggled initially. So between us I believe we’ll find the required solutions to pick up the pace tomorrow.”
Kenneth Hansen, Team Principal
“We worked really hard today. It’s been quite tricky; in some areas we had great speed from the beginning but there were other areas where still searching for performance. But we’ve learned lots today that will benefit us tomorrow and I’m confident we’ll be able to close the gap.” 
