Top 10 Drivers of 2022: Timmy Hansen (4th)

Series: World RX
Championship Position: 2^nd
Wins: 1
Podium Finishes: 6 (1^st/2^nd/2^nd/3^rd/3^rd/3^rd)

Timmy Hansen has established himself in recent years as Johan Kristoffersson’s closest competitor – and a driver who, on his day, is capable of getting the better of the multiple world champion. It was much the same story in 2022, as the Hansen World RX Team star again emerged as ‘best-of-the-rest’ behind his all-conquering countryman.

A finalist nine times out of ten, Hansen tallied six podium finishes over the course of the campaign, but it was not until the penultimate outing in Catalunya that he reached the very top step. Had fortune been on his side more often, he may well have triumphed sooner, but Lady Luck was not always the Swede’s best friend this year.

At Montalegre, Hansen led Sunday’s final until contact with Kristoffersson – for which the latter picked up a ten-second penalty – sent him skating into the gravel and out of contention for glory. At Spa-Francorchamps three weeks later, a chain reaction into the Raidillon hairpin tipped him out of the top spot again. Suspension damage in the semi-final put paid to his chances the following day, too.

In Barcelona, however, the 2019 world champion was not to be denied, indulging in a crowd-pleasing wheel-to-wheel duel with Kristoffersson in the pair’s progression race and going on to belatedly open his victory account for the year. The runner-up spoils 24 hours later made Hansen the weekend’s highest scorer, and third place at the Nürburgring then proved more than sufficient to cement second in the overall standings for the third time in his career.