Hansen: Hungary podium ‘more than we deserved’

Having conquered the conditions on home soil at Höljes a fortnight earlier to ascend the podium for the second consecutive event, Hansen travelled to Hungary targeting another champagne celebration. By Sunday afternoon, it was mission accomplished – but he admits he had to do it the hard way.

The 2019 world champion posted a brace of fourth-fastest times in Saturday’s two heats behind the wheel of his Peugeot 208 RX1e, but the subsequent discovery of gearbox oil in the car’s electric motor obliged an overnight repair job from the Hansen World RX Team crew and meant the Swedish squad entered the second day on the back foot.

After going fifth-quickest in heat three, Hansen began heat four on pole position but narrowly lost out to Patrick O’Donovan, leaving him fifth in the overall classification and on the inside of row two of the grid for the first of the semi-finals around the unforgiving ‘Red Cauldron’.

Surviving early contact with Ole Christian Veiby, the Götene native once again advanced safely through to the final, in which he exploited all of his rallycross experience to slice incisively past both CE Dealer Team cars through the opening exchanges and climb from fifth to third as he boldly held his nerve over the course of a physical first lap.

It was a position Hansen would retain right the way to the chequered flag to extend his unblemished rostrum run this season and keep himself in the title fight, just 17 points shy of the summit of the standings in the high-calibre World RX field.

“P3 was more than we deserved, but we played the game right,” the 33-year-old reflected. “We fought gloves-off, and we were in the right place at the right time. I pushed like a madman throughout the final, taking full risk on going close to the dirty line on the outside, close to the walls on the inside and sending it into the turns with more speed than felt comfortable.

“Honestly, it was scary out there sometimes, pitching the car in knowing that if it didn’t stick it would be a heavy crash, but it stuck and I was glad to reach the finish. I gave it everything I had and three podiums out of three is my best start to a season since 2021, but the bottom line is we didn’t have the pace so there is a lot to work on if we’re going to be competitive at the next round.”

“It was a very difficult weekend for the team in Hungary,” added Team Principal, Kenneth Hansen. “The mechanics and engineers worked very hard, especially on the Saturday to repair Timmy’s car and he managed to get third place in the final even though we were struggling for pace. He has a lot of rallycross races under his belt and he knows how to play the game. Coming away with third after so many problems felt like a win for the team, and we will take that positive attitude with us to Finland.”