FIA World Rallycross champion Timmy Hansen has mirrored his real-life success by winning the World RX Esports title at the final round of the season.
Like the real-world 2019 championship, World RX Esports concluded at Cape Town’s Killarney International Raceway in South Africa, and once again the title race went down to the final race of the final round, with Timmy this time against GT specialist Tom Blomqvist.
Hansen was the fastest driver throughout qualifying, winning three out of four qualifying sessions before a time penalty for Q3 dropped him down to second in the overall qualifying standings.
A fast start in his semi-final ensured Timmy entered turn one in the lead and stayed there with a trademark set of fast, clean laps to pick up six vital points for the race win.
But like in the real-world 2019 season finale, the virtual equivalent held drama until the very end.
The only way for Blomqvist to beat Hansen to the title would have been a win for the GT racer and Timmy finishing off the podium in the final. While Timmy arrived at turn one in second place, a bad start for Blomqvist left him near the back. Supercars Australia frontrunner Shane van Gisbergen charged to an easy win out front; once again driving Kevin Hansen’s 208 WRX as he had done in the first round of the championship.
At the half-way mark Timmy was sitting in an all-important third place – one that guaranteed the title even if Blomqvist won – but was then pushed off into the wall at turn five by his British rival, dropping him to the back.
Timmy recovered well to pick up fourth place on the last lap, coming out of the joker just ahead of Jonathan Pailler, and clinching the World RX Esports title with it.
Kevin Hansen had also entered the World RX Esports season finale with a chance of taking the title in third overall. However, a server issue meant that he failed to connect to his Q1 race, immediately putting him on the back foot and costing him points to van Gisbergen.
Despite dropping to fifth at turn one in his semi-final, Kevin had already climbed to third by turn four, although he was then tagged from behind and sent into the tyre barriers, leaving him with too much time to make up and no way to reach the final. A win in the same race for van Gisbergen meant Kevin would eventually finish fourth overall in the World RX Esports standings.
Team Hansen’s focus is now moving back to the real world, with both Timmy and Kevin Hansen set to start their 2020 World RX campaigns at Höljes on 22-23 August.
At the half-way mark Timmy was sitting in an all-important third place – one that guaranteed the title even if Blomqvist won – but was then pushed off into the wall at turn five by his British rival, dropping him to the back.
Timmy recovered well to pick up fourth place on the last lap, coming out of the joker just ahead of Jonathan Pailler, and clinching the World RX Esports title with it.
Kevin Hansen had also entered the World RX Esports season finale with a chance of taking the title in third overall. However, a server issue meant that he failed to connect to his Q1 race, immediately putting him on the back foot and costing him points to van Gisbergen.
Despite dropping to fifth at turn one in his semi-final, Kevin had already climbed to third by turn four, although he was then tagged from behind and sent into the tyre barriers, leaving him with too much time to make up and no way to reach the final. A win in the same race for van Gisbergen meant Kevin would eventually finish fourth overall in the World RX Esports standings.
Team Hansen’s focus is now moving back to the real world, with both Timmy and Kevin Hansen set to start their 2020 World RX campaigns at Höljes on 22-23 August.
Quotes
“The World RX Esports series has been a great way to have some racing in the off-season and the result at the end was fantastic for me. The achievement of everyone involved was fantastic. From the promoter to the commentary and production, everyone pulled off something great during a time when we thought everything else would come to a stop. We were able to keep racing, which is a big win in itself.
“I practised a lot and went into this championship in the same way as I would have done anything else. I never felt I was the quickest out there; I was always missing a couple of tenths, but I was often able to have good launches and put in the laps when I needed to. I think that was the key to becoming champion.
“Although we haven’t started racing properly yet in 2020 I already have two championships under my belt, this one and Race of Champions Virtual. This year has already been good to me in terms of results, so I’m going into the season now with nothing to lose. I’m going to jump into it and do the best that I can, and enjoy being back on a real race track. ”
“Esports has been very fun, a great experience to keep the pulse racing and keep the rallycross spirit high all the time. We had some bad luck in two of the races and maybe lacked a tenth of a second when it comes to pace. Maybe I didn’t put enough practice hours in! But to come out with first, fourth and fifth – for Henrik Krogstad in our #YellowSquad Lites team – was really nice.
“A big thanks to Sparco Gaming for hooking us up with the simulators, and to Timmy as well for spending so much time with me working on esports over the past few months.
“It’s been fun but I really want to get back into real racing now and not being so behind on the times! I’m really looking forward to getting back into my real-life 208 WRX Supercar and sending it into turn one at Höljes.”
