Team Peugeot-Hansen are embroiled in a fight with EXSRX to defend their 2015 FIA World Rallycross Teams Championship, however they lost ground to the German squad at the World RX of Germany last weekend.
The Franco-Swedish squad showed good speed during Qualifying as both Sebastien Loeb and Timmy Hansen remained well within the top twelve to qualify for the Semi-Final stages. Loeb and Hansen took an early joker lap in the hope that they would leapfrog to the front of the field in the race, however this backfired as the front three drivers took their joker on the last lap.
Loeb reflected on a difficult weekend, “It really wasn’t a great weekend. I didn’t even reach the final, which clearly wasn’t ideal. My semi-final was a virile affair and the first corner at the Estering is effectively very tricky. I got pushed a few times and I lost ground. At the same time, I think that maybe we were a little bit down on performance. It turned out to be a very complex weekend.”
Hansen is looking forward to making up ground in Argentina, “I could perhaps have challenged for the victory but the Estering can be a bit of a mystery on occasions. I don’t really understand why, but we just weren’t able to score the sort of result I was expecting. We will give it our very best shot in Argentina.”
The Peugeot-Hansen Academy duo of Davy Jeanney and Kevin Hansen faired better as Hansen beat both of the works drivers in Semi-Final one to secure a place in the Final and then go on to take fourth place. Jeanney narrowly missed out on a place in the Final after contact meant that he would retire from Semi-Final two.
With 56 points on offer at the final round of the World RX of Argentina next month and the EKSRX squad 17 points ahead in the Team Championship, there is all to play for at the final round of the 2016 FIA World Rallycross Championship.