GRX Taneco leaves Barcelona without the desired result.

PHOTO CREDIT: Gronholm RX Taneco

GRX Taneco heads home after an unsuccessful weekend in Barcelona at round two of the FIA World Rallycross Championship. 

Niclas Grönholm finished fourth in the Final, while Timur Timerzyanov could not progress further than the Semifinal.

The Finnish team showed very strong speed in Abu Dhabi, while glimpses of the speed was shown on Saturday with Timur Timerzynov finishing the day in third place overall. 

Timerzyanov is disappointed after having a strong opening day in Barcelona. “Finishing the race in fourth place of the Semifinal is not what I was hoping for, especially after promising Qualifying runs of Saturday," he said.

"I was up to speed for the first few laps of the Semifinal, but started to lose speed and maybe we didn’t play our tactics right at that moment."

Despite the setbacks at the second round of the championship, Timerzyanov remains confident that they will return to form. The Russian is sixth in the standings after the second round of the championship.

"The championship season is still in its early stages and I am sure we will come back for more exciting fights,” said Timerzyanov.

After struggling with technical issues on Day 1, Niclas showed good speed during the Qualifying heats on Sunday and set the second fastest lap time twice in a row. 

“I must say this was a mixed weekend for me," he said. "Despite some issues with the car, I managed to be close to the Top by the Semifinals and got through to the Final."

In the final Grönholm got stuck behind Janis Baumanis and could not capitalize on the speed he showed in the qualifying heats. 

"Sadly, there I had to follow a fellow competitor, who was slower than me, for several laps and I lost out on a possible Podium spot. It is what it is now and we have to look forward, but not forget what happened today," said Grönholm.

GRX Taneco Team Principal Marcus Grönholm remains upbeat about his teams' performance in Barcelona, despite not clinching a podium finish.  

“In a way I think the season has started well – we have shown that both our drivers can be really fast and fight for the maximum points, but this time it didn’t work out for us as we hoped it would," said Marcus Grönholm.

"We have to sort out some problems that we had with the cars and I am confident about the future.”

TEXT - Junaid Samodien