Team HANSEN MJP faced its most challenging FIA World Rallycross Championship round of 2019 in Canada, which features the fastest top speed of the calendar, as its lead in both championships was reduced and one of its two cars made the Finals. Kevin Hansen continues to lead the World RX drivers’ championship but no longer has his older brother as his closest rival, with Timmy falling to third as two strong qualifying runs were outweighed by issues in the other two. Starting from the outside lane twice on Saturday, Kevin struggled for track position at first, though a Q4 heat win put him ninth in qualifying on aggregate. A brilliant semi-final performance by Kevin promoted him from fifth to third, making a great start and then pulling off an early joker strategy to leapfrog Niclas Grönholm. He made a similarly bright start to the final, passing the GCK cars of Anton Marklund and Guerlain Chicherit at turn one. But a clash with Marklund damaged his car and forced him to pull up a lap from the end while running fifth, ending his chances of a stunning podium finish. He was later excluded from the final by stewards due to contact with Marklund’s GCK machine. Timmy’s weekend was also stalled by contact, losing precious time on his Q2 run after hitting the tyre barrier at the exit of turn two, then being hit by other cars four times in Q4 that forced him to limp to the finish line in 15th. Despite the tumultuous weekend Team HANSEN MJP still has a 17 point lead in the FIA World RX teams’ championship, while Kevin holds a five-point lead in the drivers’ championship, Third-placed Timmy is now 14 points behind Kevin.

Timmy Hansen, #21 Peugeot 208 WRX

“There were two key moments: my own mistake in Q2 and being in the wrong place at the wrong time twice in Q4, which wasn’t down to me. I had a great run off the start but was in the wrong place at the wrong time. That’s racing, I just have to accept it. “It feels a lot like Abu Dhabi. There I was taken out for reasons beyond my control and it felt like the same thing here again, with cars spinning out in front of me. Grönholm was definitely fast but we were going really fast as well and things were going well, and it was all taken away quite suddenly. It felt like a big surprise. So having to watch Bakkerud go past me in the championship, without being on the track to defend my position, was tough.”

Kevin Hansen, #21 Peugeot 208 WRX

“It’s just small things that went wrong this weekend, like in Q1 where I could have braked later. I was ahead of Grönholm for example into turn one but I braked a bit too early, because I didn’t really know where to do so. I was a bit too safe and that didn’t play out too well. From then on I reduced my safety margin in Q2, in which I got a penalty for due to track limits. “Sunday really went quite well. I did the best I could in Q3 and in Q4, while I wasn’t so pleased with my run, I really wanted to secure that race win to go to the semi-final. I just forgot about making sure I put together a fast run for the aggregate ranking! But I’m mega happy with the semi final. I found the real 2019 Kevin again and did an amazing run that I’m really proud of.”

Kenneth Hansen, Team Principal

“We learned a lot as a team this weekend. We didn’t put everything together. When we came here we thought we would be very strong but we struggled a little with the speed. It wasn’t really bad per se, but we also pushed a little over the limit a couple of times. “This was one of the weekends that was not just not our weekend. We need to pick up the small details as to why that was the case. We didn’t make brilliant starts, so that’s something we can look at. It was an important learning weekend for the team and for the future, to make sure we put everything together for the end of the season. ”