World RX’s
exciting new era kicked off in dramatic fashion at the ‘Magic Weekend’, as electric
RX1e cars and their sustainably-fuelled combustion RX1 rivals fought
against both each other as well as the ever-changing elements in an
action-packed double-header curtain-raiser.
Behind the wheel
of his electric Peugeot 208 RX1e – fielded by the family-run Hansen World RX
Team – Hansen endured a difficult opening day in Sweden, with a loose door and grassy
moment in heat one compounded by a coming-together with younger brother and
team-mate Kevin Hansen in heat two.
The pair would
make contact again in the semi-final as the 2019 title-winner got out-of-shape
going over the jump, and in the final, he fell three-quarters-of-a-second short
of adding a 46th rostrum finish to his CV at the international
pinnacle of the dual-surface discipline.
The next day
would prove no easier, with torrential conditions posing a challenge to the entire
field. Hansen battled his way past Saturday star Klara Andersson for third
place in heat one, but a clash with old nemesis Ole Christian Veiby in heat two
resulted in a penalty that restricted the 32-year-old to an uncharacteristically
lowly ninth in the intermediate ranking.
As the rain intensified, Hansen exploited his
experience to haul himself into the final – despite an off-track excursion in
the semi-final – but the podium continued to elude him as he was able to manage
no better than sixth, leaving him in the same position in the championship
standings travelling next to Nyirád in Hungary on 27-28 July.
“I think the ‘Battle
of Technologies’ turned out to be super-exciting,” the Götene native reflected.
“There were definitely strengths on both sides, and the races were close. We
didn’t really have the performance and I made some mistakes in Saturday’s final,
and then the conditions were super-tricky on the second
day but we still put on a show for the fans and I think we scored the maximum points
we could.”
“We
succeeded in that we managed to get both cars into both finals, but we are
certainly not happy with not getting on the podium,” added Team Principal,
Kenneth Hansen. “There’s a lot of work to be done, and we need to figure out more
about the new tyres and how to extract more
all-round performance from our package.”
Greece
Poland
Portugal