The Peugeot-Hansen team showed that they maintained their improved pace in the German round of the 2014 FIA World Rallycross Championship, however a fourth consecutive podium proved elusive on Sunday.
Both drivers Timur Timerzyanov and Timmy Hansen had good speed and pace in their Peugeot 208 WRX Supercars on Day One, with Timerzyanov beating Solberg in Heat Two to the race win, leaving him in second place on Day One whilst Hansen was classified in eighth place after two hectic and hard fought Heat races.
On Day Two, Timmy Hansen went on to win his race in Heat Three, whilst Timur Timerzyanov battled his way through his Heat Three race, missing the hectic action at turn one and later on down at the hairpin to finish in 2nd place. Both drivers progressed well in Heat Four race nine with the decision to take wet tyres after rain proving inspired. A late joker lap from Timerzyanov gave Hansen the race win and the team a one-two finish.
With the two 208 WRX drivers starting together on the front row of Semi-Final One, they both went on to run wide at the first corner and were then stuck in the dust thrown up by other competitors. Hansen wenton to finish in third place and made it through to the final and where he would finish in sixth place, whilst Timerzyanov finished sixth in Semi-Final One and would go no further.
Hansen knew the event would be difficult for the team as he summs up here, “For the first time ever the positions didn’t really change in the first corner of the final here. When you are starting on the third row you can stay out of trouble and find a way through, I expected some big trouble but no gaps opened up. It’s hard to overtake on this track, it was really dusty so we tried to take a late joker but I made a couple of mistakes and it didn’t happen. I don’t think we had any luck in the final, but the car was working really well. When we were in clear air, in all the sessions we were very fast. Germany is all about surviving, we made some good changes after day one and things felt really good, we are working very well as a team and I think we can get a good result next weekend in Italy.”
Timerzyanov is looking ahead to the challenge of the Franciacorta circuit in a few days time after a difficult weekend, “We had a very good result at the Intermediate Classification for me and my team mate. We were doing really well but our event didn’t go so well when we both went wide in the first corner. I should have gone more tight, the other guys took advantage of our mistake, Pontus Tidemand and Petter Solberg got inside us. After that for me I was just stuck in dust the whole race. We now have just one week before the next race in Italy. Nobody has raced there, but we saw the circuit at the official opening of the championship earlier this season, it looks very fast with some jumps on the loose, but as always we will push hard and try to be the best.”
Peugeot-Hansen Team Boss Kenneth Hansen took away the positives from the weekend, “It was absolutely brilliant to have both of our guys in the top three at the Intermediate Classification, this circuit has been historically difficult for us so to be able to perform so well was a big result in itself. We are playing our cards well at the moment, both drivers did a great job in the heats to stay out of trouble. In the fourth heat we made a great decision to start on wet tyres in difficult conditions but it worked well for us and helped our position. We had an engine problem with Timmy’s car at the end of the heats so we decided to change it to prevent a failure in the semi-final. Unfortunately we take a 15 championship point penalty for doing so. We suffered in the semi-final with track position, we could have had both cars in the final but sometimes things just happen like that.”
The next round of the 2014 FIA World Rallycross Championship takes place in a few days time at Franciacorta, Italy on 27th – 28th September.
