FIA World Rallycross Champion Timmy Hansen scored his second piece of silverware in Barcelona this weekend, finishing second in round eight of the World RX season by steering clear of the chaos unfolding around him.
Timmy was on fine form after winning the first of two Barcelona rounds on Saturday, qualifying on the front row for the second semi-final and duly converting that into a place in the all-important final.
A fast start meant Timmy immediately passed Mattias Ekström for third place on the run to turn one, where contact between the two leaders sent Andreas Bakkerud around and allowed Timmy to dive past into second place.
Staying out until the final lap to take his joker lap, Timmy hoped to use clean air in the second half of the race to take the lead, though ultimately couldn’t quite match the pace of eventual winner Johan Kristoffersson.
Kevin Hansen’s weekend had got off to a brilliant start after finishing third on Saturday, and like elder brother Timmy, he secured a front-row start for his semi-final on Sunday.
A very crowded turn one meant Kevin was shuffled back to fifth place at the start, though he quickly recovered to fourth at turn three, sneaking past Timo Scheider on the inside of the long right-hander.
An early joker to find clear air didn’t quite pan out as he caught Tamás Kárai a lap later and, while a brilliant overtake exiting turn six put him into fourth place, too much time was lost to catch up to Robin Larsson who held the last transfer spot for the final.
With a win and two podium finishes in two days, Team Hansen’s quest to retain the teams’ championship is well and truly back on track. Heading to Barcelona with a 43-point deficit to JC Raceteknik, Timmy and Kevin’s efforts have narrowed that gap to only 16 points, with two rounds in Belgium and Germany still to go.
Timmy has also strengthened his position in the race for third in the drivers’ title, extending his advantage over Niclas Grönholm to 16 points. Kevin meanwhile is 12 points behind Grönholm after Barcelona, sitting fifth in the championship.
Kevin Hansen’s weekend had got off to a brilliant start after finishing third on Saturday, and like elder brother Timmy, he secured a front-row start for his semi-final on Sunday.
A very crowded turn one meant Kevin was shuffled back to fifth place at the start, though he quickly recovered to fourth at turn three, sneaking past Timo Scheider on the inside of the long right-hander.
An early joker to find clear air didn’t quite pan out as he caught Tamás Kárai a lap later and, while a brilliant overtake exiting turn six put him into fourth place, too much time was lost to catch up to Robin Larsson who held the last transfer spot for the final.
With a win and two podium finishes in two days, Team Hansen’s quest to retain the teams’ championship is well and truly back on track. Heading to Barcelona with a 43-point deficit to JC Raceteknik, Timmy and Kevin’s efforts have narrowed that gap to only 16 points, with two rounds in Belgium and Germany still to go.
Timmy has also strengthened his position in the race for third in the drivers’ title, extending his advantage over Niclas Grönholm to 16 points. Kevin meanwhile is 12 points behind Grönholm after Barcelona, sitting fifth in the championship.
Quotes
“It’s been a fantastic weekend with a massive step-up in performance for both me and Kevin. We are fighting for wins now which feels great. Yesterday we got it, today not quite, but it’s still been a great weekend and I’m happy that the work that we’ve done in the lead-up to this weekend has paid off.
“We had great pace today but the race didn’t quite go in our favour. I wasn’t lucky enough to have any pole position starts today which wasn’t ideal so qualified fourth, though I was hoping to beat Bakkerud in the semi-final, even with older tyres, to get myself that all-important front row grid slot.
“The final was carnage. I came up behind Johan and it was the same battle again from Saturday but this time around I couldn’t quite manage it. The only way to win was to put in a perfect run and I didn’t quite put together a string of perfect laps in the final; I wasn’t quite able to find that perfect rhythm from the day before.”
“Today was a very promising day. The car performance was amazing in all three qualifying sessions and I was feeling really comfortable with the adjustments the team had made overnight. My speed was much better today so I was very happy with everything in that respect.
“We had a bit of a bad start in the semi-final but I felt we were in a good position by jokering first. That’s a good place to be, first into the joker, so it was looking promising. Unfortunately, Karai had gone for the complete opposite strategy to us so getting past him lost us the time we needed to make the final.
“Overall this was a very strong weekend, a great return to form, and I feel like I’m getting better every weekend. For the first time this year, I was within sight of a victory, and I don’t plan to let it out of my sight again for the rest of the year. I’m even more excited to be heading to Spa now with the momentum we’ve built here, with the team back to winning ways.”
“What was most impressive today was Kevin’s level of performance increasing further. In past years he was slightly behind Timmy’s pace but now he’s at exactly the same level; sometimes even quicker. So we have two really quick drivers and cars. Today he found the level he’s normally capable of delivering.
“Our win yesterday seems to have made Johan even hungrier to make sure he didn’t get beaten to victory! He was clearly very determined to make sure Timmy didn’t win in the final again today. But having one race like yesterday’s final, where Timmy put in an absolutely perfect drive, is still a fantastic performance. My voice is almost gone from pushing Timmy so much on the radio!
“We’re back in the game for the teams’ world championship now and we’ll be doing everything we can to catch the Audis in the title race. I believe with the direction we’re going in and what we’ve learned this weekend will also help us in Spa. Now we’ve made a big step for this weekend, finding the next bit of pace will be even harder, as the rate of return on testing gets smaller and we’re also quite late into the season now. Plus we need good weather! But we’ll do some more testing and see what we find. We never stop pushing!”
