Team Peugeot-Hansen driver Timmy Hansen leads the overnight standings on home ground in round six of the FIA World Rallycross Championship from Holjes in Sweden in his Peugeot 208 WRX.
The young Swedish driver set the fastest time in heat one and went on to set the fourth fastest time in heat two and was very happy to lead on home ground.
“It’s been a great day and it’s fantastic to take a heat win at my home event. I was up against some big names in the first heat [Petter Solberg, Johan Kristoffersson and Andreas Bakkerud] so the win felt even sweeter,” confirmed 22-year-old Hansen. “We had a good strategy in heat one and it paid off. The team are making some small changes to the car now but everything is feeling good and I’m confident we can continue for a good result tomorrow.”
Ford Olsbergs MSE drivers Andreas Bakkerud and Reinis Nitiss hold second and third position overnight in their Ford Fiesta Supercars, ahead of 2014 WorldRX Champion and SDRX driver Petter Solberg, putting his Citroen DS3 in fourth place. 2014 Holjes WorldRX victor Mattias Ekstrom finished Day One in fifth place in his EKS Audi S1.
Bakkerud was overjoyed to be back up the front again after taking a no nonsense approach to the event.
“I feel we’ve had good pace today. We have pushed today but haven’t done anything silly,” explained Bakkerud. “We’ve had two good starts and on the second heat, myself and Reinis discussed a strategy before we started the race. Reinis took the Joker on the first lap and I took the normal line which worked well. We had four clean laps and it was a brilliant way to finish the day in front of so many fans, friends and family who are here to support me this weekend.”
Volkswagen Team Sweden‘s EuroRX driver Ole Christian Veiby lies in sixth place in his Polo Supercar ahead of Timur Timerzyanov and SDRX’s Liam Doran, who is showing a change in fortune in eighth place. Germany EsteringRX winner Davy Jeanney had a more difficult start to the weekend in the sister Peugeot 208 after a puncture in heat one dropped him down the order before fighting back in heat two to finish third.
Daniel Holten made a firm start to the weekend’s action in his Eklund Motorsport run Volkswagen Beetle and finished the first day in 16th place overall, taking a heat race victory and is looking to build on that progress on Sunday.
“The Beetle is brand new so there’s a lot of learning to do but we make some adjustments to the car’s set-up before heat two and everything is feeling good. I love this track, I’ve been driving here for six years so I know it well. I’ve got pole position in my first race tomorrow so my aim to get a good start and to get a good time so I can try to make the top 12 tomorrow.”
