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Tuesday, 20 June 2023

The Hansen's endure nightmare weekend in Hell.

PHOTO CREDIT: Red Bull Content Pool
The Hansen brothers have endured a weekend to forget in Hell, Norway, at the second round of the FIA World Rallycross Championship, following incidents on track for both Kevin and Timmy.

Having made steps to close the gap to the front of the order following the opening round of the season in Portugal two weeks earlier, the Hansen World RX Team entered the weekend in Hell with high hopes.

"We found speed and some surprises to us that helped us move forward, but the ending was not good - first with Timmy’s incident and then with Kevin’s puncture. It’s just one of those weekends, but now we are only looking forward to try and start on a new platform at the next races to get closer to the top. We will continue to work with that objective," Kenneth Hansen, Hansen Motorsport Team Principal, said.

Changes to the all-electric Peugeot 208 RX1e machines through the Norwegian encounter also improved the performance step-by-step on the hillside circuit, as round-one podium finisher Kevin Hansen set the second-best time in Heat 1, with teammate Timmy Hansen third overall, to get qualifying underway.

Never making it to pole position and the favored inside spot on the grid, the Hansen brothers several times tried an outside move in the opening corner and Kevin Hansen finished second in the Ranking order after Heat 4.

Timmy Hansen's Peugeot rebounded after hitting a bump, and ultimately blue-lighting the Kriesel battery upon landing.
PHOTO CREDIT: RX+ LIVE SCREENGRAB
But for Timmy Hansen, his weekend was cut short in Heat 4. Pushed onto the grass over the finish line while trying to overtake another car, and leaped into the air. When it landed, the Blue Light came on to signify a large impact, meaning that the single-specification battery pack used by all World RX cars needed to be checked by specialists, putting Hansen out of the event. The other competitor from the incident was disqualified.

"There were a lot of good signs this weekend. What we’re working on is taking the battle to win some races and this weekend we got a lot closer to be able to do that," Timmy Hansen said. "Hopefully we can be back for the next race to prove what we can do. Things can change quickly and we will keep pushing. We have big motivation in the team to move forward for better results in the coming races."

For Kevin Hansen in the Semi-Finals he made another good start, but contact on the way into turn one caused a front-right puncture, which ended his hopes of making the Final.

"The weekend didn’t end like we wanted. I had a great start in my Semi-Final, was almost completely clear of Johan Kristoffersson into turn one but we had contact and I got a puncture directly," Kevin said. "It felt like we had a good car and could challenge for the podium and if we put everything together we could challenge Johan for the win. It’s a really big shame, overall though we qualified well and we’re making good progress. We will bounce back!"

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