Throughout history we saw brothers get into motorsport and compete against each other different disciplines, but what Team Hansen MJP did at the Catalunya RX, second event of the 2019 FIA World Rallycross Championship season, was even more worth recognition, with Timmy Hansen leading Kevin Hansen in 1-2 between brothers with a family operation behind it, something incredibly rare in motorsport, let alone in high level competitions.
The Hansen MJP Peugeots were the class of the field during the qualifiers, with Timmy Hansen completing a clean sweep and only feeling some pressure in Q3 and Q4, when Niclas Grönholm found even more pace in the GRX TANECO Hyundai. Chris Hoy, one of the wildcard entries there, had to get to grips during the races and shown improvement from Q3 onwards, being rewarded with the 16th place and a point in his rallycross debut.
On semifinal 1 Timmy Hansen took advantage of better grip in the Peugeot 208 WRX and commanded the field from the go, with the GRX TANECO Hyundais trying to catch him up. In the end, Hansen and Niclas Grönholm finished first and second, but Timur Timerzyanov didn’t count with good team tactics from the trio of GCK cars behind him, which promoted Cyril Raymond to third in the final lap.
Semifinal 2 had Kevin Hansen leading from the inside of Turn 1 while Janis Baumanis stole the second place from Andreas Bakkerud, though the Norwegian recovered it in the end to come home in second, while Baumanis had to take the third place from Krisztian Szabo by force by sneaking on the inside in the final lap, all while Kevin had a smooth drive in front.
The final had the Hansens locking the front row, so strategy would be present, and the start had them keeping their positions while Andreas Bakkerud sneaked into third, and he was quite stuck in terms of strategy as a Joker Lap could leave him behind Janis Baumanis, like Niclas Grönholm was, but he had to get rid of Kevin Hansen as the Swede was protecting second place.
Timmy Hansen was untouchable during the whole race and won comfortably, but Kevin had to power it to get extra speed and overcome Bakkerud for second place, leaving the Monster Energy RX Cartel driver with the final podium place.
With the Catalunya RX sweep, Timmy Hansen was able to compensate for the disastrous Abu Dhabi RX end, sitting in third with 38 points, though he is still distant from second placed Niclas Grönholm with his 48 points and even more from the leader Kevin Hansen and his 56 points. The Hansens can’t complain about the teams standings too, leading with 94 points over 76 from GRX TANECO.
On May 12th, Spa-Francorchamps will receive the World RX for the first time, with the work going non-stop to prepare the purpose-built circuit that will pass through the iconic Eau Rouge.
PHOTO: Team Hansen MJP
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