Peugeot’s Timmy Hansen is back to winning again following his victory at the World Rallycross of Turkey today. This was the seventh race where Peugeot Team Hansen finished on the podium, Timmy has now narrowed Solberg’s lead in the championship to just 19 points with two more rounds left.
Championship leader Petter Solberg was doing well until his driveshaft broke in the semi-finals forcing him to limp all the way to the finish. After winning in Barcelona last month, Solberg was eager to repeat a similar win in Turkey in his bid to win the World Rallycross Championship for the second year in a row.
Speaking about his weekend, Solberg said, “We lost too many points this weekend which isn’t so good for the Championship, now the pressure is really on for Italy.”
Hansen had to fight hard to acquire his victory today. The semi-finals were filled with chaos but the Peugeot driver managed to qualify for the finals where he had a perfect start. He was awarded the Monster Energy Super Charge Award for reaching turn one first after the start.
An excited Hansen said, “Our start was not so good in the semi-final and there was a lot of chaos with so many close battles going on. I was so happy to come out top. Then the final, wow! I got a great start and then kept pushing until the very end when I did the Joker and just managed to stay ahead of Andreas. I actually can’t believe I won today and all I have left to say is that rallycross is the most exciting sport in the world!”
Second place went to Andreas Bakkerud from Ford Olsbergs MSE while Johan Kristofferson claimed third place in his Volkswagen Polo RX. Bakkerud was the winner of last year’s Turkey RX.
Two-time DTM champion Mattias Ekstrom finished fourth after winning four heats today, he made contact with teammate Anton Marklund but managed to finish in the top five, Marklund finished sixth behind the other Peugeot Team Hansen of Davy Jeanney.
Thomas Bryntesson from Norway won in the RX Lites – his fourth win in a row leading Kevin Hansen who is Timmy’s younger brother and current RX Lites championship leader. Tom Onslow-Cole from Britain finished third in this category, this was his first rallycross event having secured a chance to participate after winning RX Talent Search at Lydden Hill in May 2015.
The penultimate round of the FIA World Rallycross Championship 2015 will take place in Franciacorta, Italy on October 16. This will serve as the final round of the Super1600, RX Lites and Euro RX.
