Timmy Hansen

 

The eldest son of Kenneth Hansen – the most successful rallycross driver in history, with 14 European Championship titles to his name – Timmy Hansen has gone on to establish himself as a master of the discipline in his own right, clinching the coveted World Championship Drivers’ crown in dramatic fashion in the 2019 season finale in South Africa.

Notwithstanding his roots, Hansen began his motorsport career in karting and single-seaters before focussing on rallycross, reaching the final on his international debut in the discipline, in the Finnish round of the FIA European Rallycross Championship at Kouvola in 2012.  

After placing third overall in his maiden full campaign of Euro RX in 2013, he stepped up to the FIA World Rallycross Championship at the wheel of a Peugeot 208 WRX the following season and scored his and the car’s maiden success at World RX of Italy, with three further podium finishes propelling him to fourth in the title table. 

A successful 2015 campaign yielded three more wins (Norway, France, Turkey) and the runner-up spot in the standings behind Petter Solberg, before Hansen was joined at Team Peugeot-Hansen by nine-time FIA World Rally Champion Sébastien Loeb in 2016. The Swede won World RX of Canada that year and reached the podium in half of the events he contested, bolstering his tally with an additional four rostrum appearances in 2017.

Peugeot took its World RX effort in-house in 2018, utilising resources from the firm’s winning Dakar Rally programme. Hansen again partnered Loeb, now under the Team Peugeot Total banner, and picked up two podiums on his way to sixth in the championship.

His 2019 season was his most accomplished to-date, recording four victories from ten starts to secure both the Drivers’ laurels as well as the Teams’ trophy for Team Hansen MJP alongside younger brother and team-mate, Kevin. The 2020 campaign delivered another four rostrum results – including a win in Barcelona – en route to third in the classification, while in 2021, despite leading the way right up to the Nürburging finale, Hansen was ultimately forced to give best to countryman Johan Kristoffersson in a dead-heat duel for the crown.

The pair reprised their battle the following season – the first of World RX’s electric era – and although unable to stop his compatriot’s march towards a fifth world championship title, the Lidköping native once more proved to be Kristoffersson’s closest challenger, triumphing in Catalunya and spraying podium champagne on five further occasions.