Reigning FIA World Rallycross Champion Timmy Hansen scored his first win of the 2020 campaign in emphatic style in the first of two rounds at Barcelona, with Kevin Hansen finishing third to give Team Hansen a double podium.
Timmy repeated his brilliant form from last year’s World RX of Catalunya, where he led a one-two finish for the team, by winning again on his return in a nailbiting finish against current championship leader Johan Kristoffersson.
After finishing qualifying second overall, Timmy went on to win his semi-final, battling with Kevin after the 2019 bronze medallist got the better start. An earlier joker lap for Timmy meant he retook the lead from Kevin on the last lap, so lined up alongside Kristoffersson on the front row of the final ahead of Kevin in third.
From there, Timmy went toe-to-toe with Kristoffersson at turn one but just lost the battle for the first corner, instead opting to joker just before the halfway point of the final. A series of quick laps meant that come his rival’s final-lap joker, Timmy took the lead, fending off his compatriot in the final few corners after some minor contact.
Kevin’s second podium of the 2020 season, after his second place at the team’s home round in Sweden, was assured through a penultimate lap joker from second place. He fell behind Timmy but came out well clear of Niclas Grönholm, who is a key rival to both Hansens in the four-way battle for third in the drivers’ championship, securing third at the finish line.
With fine performances from both drivers, important progress has been made in the championship standings. The gap in the teams’ title race has narrowed to only Timmy is now third in the drivers’ championship, five points ahead of Grönholm, while Kevin has moved up to fifth overall.
A second round at the Barcelona-Catalunya circuit takes place tomorrow, the eighth round of what is currently set to be a 10-round championship.
Kevin’s second podium of the 2020 season, after his second place at the team’s home round in Sweden, was assured through a penultimate lap joker from second place. He fell behind Timmy but came out well clear of Niclas Grönholm, who is a key rival to both Hansens in the four-way battle for third in the drivers’ championship, securing third at the finish line.
With fine performances from both drivers, important progress has been made in the championship standings. The gap in the teams’ title race has narrowed to only Timmy is now third in the drivers’ championship, five points ahead of Grönholm, while Kevin has moved up to fifth overall.
A second round at the Barcelona-Catalunya circuit takes place tomorrow, the eighth round of what is currently set to be a 10-round championship.
Quotes
“There has so many times I’ve been chasing Johan since 2017 when they entered with that Polo. We have been chasing it as Team Peugeot-Hansen, Peugeot as a factory team, and now as Team Hansen the privateer, so it feels like we’ve beaten the unbeatable today. This result is a big box tick for me; It’s something I’ve been trying to achieve for a long time, to beat that car and driver combination in a World RX final.
“I believe we can go even faster tomorrow. There are still things we can fine-tune for this track and I know the more work there is, the faster we’ll go. So I’m feeling very hopeful for tomorrow. If we can achieve the same again tomorrow as what we managed today that would be fantastic. Right now I’m happy and grateful for today’s result but tomorrow it’s about refocusing, doing another three qualifiers and two finals. Who knows, maybe we’ll come home with two first-place trophies?”
“It’s been an amazing day. It’s great to get some pay-off for all the hard work we’ve been putting in since Finland and finally we’re back on the top step with a ‘brodium’! This is an amazing place to do it, the site of our one-two finish last year, to come back to the top and win again.
“It was a good day. Our speed has definitely improved since the last round, so we definitely deserve this result. We need to keep our head down now; we’ve got a good car and we can improve it further. There are still some small things on my side that can be improved to unlock more speed. I’m in a good place for tomorrow regarding tyres, so generally, I’m really happy with how the weekend is going.”
“It was absolutely fantastic to watch the end of this race, with Timmy chasing down the Polo; a very good factory car that we’ve had some difficulty matching the pace of in the past.
“All the development, testing, brainstorming we’ve done so far needs to continue this weekend because we haven’t found a perfect set-up yet. But we continued to improve our set-up throughout the day and planned our tyre strategy well, which made a difference.
“We really needed this one-three result today, to really demonstrate our performance and potential again with meaningful results. Now, we will focus to try and repeat this performance tomorrow. It will be difficult but we are feeling confident and we won’t be staying still with our development either; we will be trying more changes to close the gap even further.”
