After the new evolution of the Peugeot 208 WRX was introduced at the 2018 World RX of Sweden, Timmy Hansen has been very happy with the step in performance and once again showed its worth in 2018 World RX of Canada.
The Swedish driver went quicker and quicker in each Qualifying session to finish in fourth place overall and secured the wheel in Semi-Final Two to line up on the front row for the Final.
“We had a good weekend generally but during the final I didn’t make a perfect start. Despite that, we still managed to end up second out of the first corner,” said Hansen.
Hansen chased Kristoffersson hard in Canada for the Supercar win. Credit: IMG / FIA World RX
“After that I didn’t want to take any big risks, because it’s been a while since we’ve been on the podium. I really didn’t want to have a puncture or anything, so through Turn 5 in particular I was really safe every lap!”
In the Supercar Final, Hansen chased eventual winner Johan Kristoffersson all the way to the flag and showed that the development of the Team Peugeot Total entries has closed the gap.
For the second half of the 2018 FIA World Rallycross Championship, this means that Hansen is in a better place to start hunting for that first win. However Hansen is aware there is more work to do.
Hansen is enjoying the new step of the Peugeot 208 WRX. Credit: Jaanus Ree/Red Bull Content Pool
“This was only the second time that we were driving this car after introducing it in Sweden and I have to say I was much more comfortable with it here this weekend; we did some good work at the test in Riga, so I felt a lot more confident.”
We got through the race well and I don’t think Johan, who won, managed to pull out too big a gap in front of us so we can see that this new car is starting to get faster. We’ve still got a lot of work to do and it’s only going to move forwards from here.”
