Those wanting to bet in a specific driver for the Lohéac RX, eighth round of the FIA World Rallycross Championship, were having huge headaches as competition was strong and no clear favorite was seen. Timmy Hansen somehow got the edge over opponents and title rivals and prevailed with his Peugeot 208 WRX in French lands.
The first half of the qualifying was an entire surprise, considering that returning Toomas Heikkinen outpaced everybody in Q1 and then Rokas Baciuska did even better in Q2, becoming an unlikely overnight leader.
In Q3 and Q4 the winners took the top spot, with Andreas Bakkerud getting Q3 and Timmy Hansen showing some monster pace to dominate Q4 and be the top qualifier. Baciuska still managed to be second despite a drop in pace, and Andreas Bakkerud was third, with the worst part being for championship leader Kevin Hansen as he escaped from elimination by placing in tenth.
Bakkerud and Timmy had their championship matters to count in Semifinal 1, and this kept them settled in first and second with Bakkerud being in the lead, even though Anton Marklund tried as much as he could to take the older Hansen out of his position, with the trio being qualified to the Final.
Baciuska needed to prove why he was on pole for Semifinal 2 despite having more experienced opponents behind him, and although Niclas Grönholm found his way past him, the Lithuanian gave no chance for Liam Doran and was firm in second place. The problem was for Kevin Hansen as his fourth place would mean trouble for his championship lead, so either Baciuska or Timo Scheider were targets in sight.
Grönholm was comfortable all the time and won easily, and with Scheider going to the Joker in the final lap, Baciuska secured second place. Again, Kevin Hansen was in trouble, as he barely got third place and had to use all his defensive skills available to hold Scheider and Timur Timerzyanov to advance to the Final.
Bakkerud had the lead in the Final but everything was ruined with a contact with Grönholm on Turn 1, allowing Timmy Hansen, Anton Marklund and Kevin Hansen to go past. Kevin Hansen was controlling the pace of the pack during the whole time, so Timmy Hansen didn’t have any opposition in the final laps, securing his way back to victory. Marklund got second place in a smart move over Baciuska, and Kevin Hansen completed the podium.
The margins between the top 3 in the standings never were so tight, as Andreas Bakkerud leads the way with 160 points while the Hansen brothers share the second place with 158 points each. After them comes a hopeful Niclas Grönholm with 135 points as the only dark horse at this point of the season. By the way, the consistency of the Hansen Bros. is giving them the lead between the teams as Team Hansen MJP has 316 points against the 286 of GRX TANECO and 260 of Monster Energy RX Cartel.
Next stop is Latvia, as the Bikernieki Sports Base at Riga will be host to the ninth and penultimate round of the season on September 14th, the last one in European lands.
PHOTO - Team Hansen MJP
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