Reigning FIA World Rallycross Timmy Hansen scored his first two podiums of the season at the World RX of Catalunya in Spain last weekend. On Saturday he took his first win of the season on Saturday and ended up taking another podium on Sunday as he managed to stay away from the chaotic start to Sunday’s final.
Team Hansen were in fine form throughout the whole weekend and a reason for this may be because of a test the team conducted during the week before heading to Catalunya. They walked away with a total of three podium positions across the two rounds.
Timmy, who won Saturday’s round seven of the season, also drove well the next day having qualified within the top four in the intermediate standings that saw him take a front row grid place in the semi-final.
After finishing in second place he was starting on the second row in the final, after the start he was reacting quickly to not get collected in the crash at the first turn. Later in the race Timmy stayed out until last lap when he did his joker but he couldn’t match the speed of Johan Kristoffersson who took the win and Timmy ended up with a second place finish.
“It’s been a fantastic weekend with a massive step-up in performance for both me and Kevin. We are fighting for wins now which feels great. Yesterday we got it, today not quite, but it’s still been a great weekend and I’m happy that the work that we’ve done in the lead-up to this weekend has paid off.” Timmy said.
“We had great pace today but the race didn’t quite go in our favour. I wasn’t lucky enough to have any pole position starts today which wasn’t ideal so qualified fourth, though I was hoping to beat Bakkerud in the semi-final, even with older tyres, to get myself that all-important front row grid slot.
“The final was carnage. I came up behind Johan and it was the same battle again from Saturday but this time around I couldn’t quite manage it. The only way to win was to put in a perfect run and I didn’t quite put together a string of perfect laps in the final; I wasn’t quite able to find that perfect rhythm from the day before.”
His brother Kevin took his second third place finish of the season on Saturday, but missed out the final on the Sunday, Kevin had also qualified well and took a front-row start in his semi-final, but had to settle for a fourth place finish after losing out at turn one.
“Today was a very promising day. The car performance was amazing in all three qualifying sessions and I was feeling really comfortable with the adjustments the team had made overnight. My speed was much better today so I was very happy with everything in that respect, Kevin said.
“We had a bit of a bad start in the semi-final but I felt we were in a good position by jokering first. That’s a good place to be, first into the joker, so it was looking promising. Unfortunately, Karai had gone for the complete opposite strategy to us so getting past him lost us the time we needed to make the final.
“Overall this was a very strong weekend, a great return to form, and I feel like I’m getting better every weekend. For the first time this year, I was within sight of a victory, and I don’t plan to let it out of my sight again for the rest of the year. I’m even more excited to be heading to Spa now with the momentum we’ve built here, with the team back to winning ways.”
Timmy has now passed Niclas Grönholm in the Drivers’ Championship and is now currently sitting in third overall as the championship continues at Spa Francorchamps in Belgium next month.
