A wet and muddy Kouvola circuit hosted a second consecutive FIA World Rallycross Championship round in as many days, with reigning champions Team Hansen and its drivers Timmy and Kevin Hansen only just missing out on crucial positions by the smallest of margins.
Reigning World RX champion Timmy finished only 0.7s away from a podium position, taking fifth in the final. He had set the fastest lap of the final on lap two but had already been muscled out at the first corner, putting him last.
A calculated and opportunistic move on Andreas Bakkerud one corner later gave Timmy fifth place, but his tricky start left him with slightly too much time to make up on his rivals ahead before the finish.
Both Timmy and Kevin’s days started well, with Timmy going second-quickest in Q1 and Kevin doing the same in Q2. That had put Kevin second in the intermediate qualifying standings after Q2, though weather conditions went against Kevin’s position in the last Q3 race, which was slower than the earlier races due to track conditions.
Timmy would finish qualifying fourth while Kevin qualified sixth, putting both in the same semi-final. While Timmy progressed to the final with second place, Kevin was only just beaten to third by Timur Timerzaynov, who had jokered on the final lap and come out ahead of both Hansens.
A smart cutback move gave Timmy second place in a three-way drag race to the line, while Kevin crossed the line only 0.06 seconds behind Timerzyanov in fourth.
Though only one of two cars made it to the final, Team Hansen’s position in the teams’ championship remains exactly as it was coming into this Sunday, holding second place with only 19 points to catch to the leaders. Timmy meanwhile remains fourth in the drivers’ championship, while Kevin drops to fifth.
While Hansen Motorsport’s World RX team won’t be back on track until September 19-20 in Latvia, its CrossCar squad LifeLive Nordic and its Supercar Lites team #YellowSquad are both on track next weekend (September 4-6).
Timmy would finish qualifying fourth while Kevin qualified sixth, putting both in the same semi-final. While Timmy progressed to the final with second place, Kevin was only just beaten to third by Timur Timerzaynov, who had jokered on the final lap and come out ahead of both Hansens.
A smart cutback move gave Timmy second place in a three-way drag race to the line, while Kevin crossed the line only 0.06 seconds behind Timerzyanov in fourth.
Though only one of two cars made it to the final, Team Hansen’s position in the teams’ championship remains exactly as it was coming into this Sunday, holding second place with only 19 points to catch to the leaders. Timmy meanwhile remains fourth in the drivers’ championship, while Kevin drops to fifth.
While Hansen Motorsport’s World RX team won’t be back on track until September 19-20 in Latvia, its CrossCar squad LifeLive Nordic and its Supercar Lites team #YellowSquad are both on track next weekend (September 4-6).
Quotes
“The key today was consistency and being able to maximise our pace when the opportunity arose. We managed that in Q1 behind Kristoffersson and then again in Q3 behind Bakkerud, which is what allowed me to secure a front-row slot for the semi-finals.
“After the launch in my semi-final it was really difficult to see through the mud that came onto the windscreen, so I was quite happy to be second. We jokered on lap five in the hope of beating Gronholm to the semi-final victory but unfortunately, I came out behind Timerzyanov, which handed extra track position to him, and that led to Kevin missing the final once Timur rejoined. That was very unfortunate.
“The team is really strong together; we’re very motivated and everyone is working very hard. The car’s still very strong and it got to the finish line every time with no technical issues. They’ve had the most difficult World RX events ever, doing two weekends with two full championship rounds each back-to-back, so the team has done an incredible job of keeping the car in one piece. So I need to thank them for all their work, for being able to figure out the problem that slowed me down in Sweden, and we’ll continue to work on finding more pace between now and Riga.
“Today was a wet race so we had to set-up the car completely for those conditions, and we made some progress in that area. I had the best feeling during the semi-final; I was very fast and had never felt so confident in the wet, so I was very happy in that respect. In the end, the margins were not on my side today.
“In Q3 we lost a lot because it had started to rain more than the previous races. The grip was lower of course but more than that, going up the hill towards turn two I couldn’t see anything on two laps, so my run wasn’t fast. That cost me a lot in terms of grid position for the semis as the intermediate points were so close.”
“I felt like I was on course for first in the semi-final until getting stuck in traffic. The result was a bit tough to take when I was so fast but there’s been worse days. We’re fifth in the championship which isn’t too bad considering some of the issues we’ve had with launches and not making it to the final twice this year.
“Next week will be my third race weekend in a row, driving the LifeLive TN5 at Nysum. It’s been a long time since I raced a CrossCar and I’ve heard Nysum is a cool track, so I’m excited for that. We’ve tried to improve the TN5 so my hope is that we’re on the pace there.”
“We made some big improvements today and I feel we learned a lot, even though the results were still a bit mixed. It was very tight between the drivers at the front and while our starts were improving, it wasn’t by enough. But we’re going in the right direction, both with the chassis and with the starts.
“We’re already four rounds into the season now so perhaps that improvement hasn’t come as quickly as we’d hoped, but that’s motorsport, sometimes you need to work to catch up a little bit. The circumstances today were particularly difficult for us because of how little grip there was, especially on the start line. But we’ll use this knowledge to continue improving the car and try to come back stronger in Latvia.”
