Swede Timmy Hansen has claimed his first European Rallycross Championship round in Hungary by beating his teammate Timur Timerzyanov at the very last metres to the chequered flag.
Davy Jeanney had made good use of the four qualifying heats to eventually top the order of the ‘Intermediate Classification’ by only 10 minus points. While reigning European Rallycross Champion Russian Timur Timerzyanov made it to second position with 15 points, his teammate Timmy Hansen finished qualification in third place, having collected 20 “bad points” over the weekend. However, both Semi-Finals were claimed by the two Hansen Motorsport drivers, Timmy won the first and Timur the second one.
In the last race of the day it was that man from Tatarstan who was in the lead for almost all of the way to the chequered flag. But Hansen Junior’s Joker Lap tactic turned out to be the better and the young Swede was eventually able to beat his fellow Citroën DS3 SuperCar campaigner at the last metres towards the finish line. While “TT” became Hansen’s runner-up that Frenchman Davy Jeanney made it to third place, but lost 15 of his 25 scored championship points as the penalty for the change of his Citroën C4 engine on Saturday morning.
Knut Ove Børseth impressed with finishing in fourth place, the Norwegian had made his way up into the Final by becoming seventh of the qualification and third of the first Semi-Final. Fifth place went to Peter Hedström, the Swede had, similar to his teammate Børseth, claimed third place of the second Semi-Final after finishing qualification in tenth place. Bad luck in the Final for Hansen Motorsport team member Alexander Hvaal, the Norwegian lost fourth place due to a flat tyre and limped home as sixth overall.
With Latvian Reinis Nitišs winning the Super1600s Final, Swede Daniel Lundh claiming victory of the TouringCars Final, and Swede William Nilsson (also from the town of Tomelilla, but no family ties with Rallycross legend Rolf “Myggan” Nilsson) making first place of the JRX category his, the Hungarian event saw in all four different classes maiden victories. In the Super1600s Final Danish Ulrik Linnemann had finished in third place, but was later on disqualified and downgraded to sixth place when his Peugeot 207 failed post event scrutiny.
Petter Solberg
Petter Solberg struggled with engine problems right from the start on Saturday and managed only a sixth and a tenth fastest time in the first two heats. The second day began with continuing problems, when in the third heat his race was red flagged because of the violent crash of Liam Doran. In the following re-run Solberg’s engine failed again. The fourth heat went best, with a second fastest time added to his intermediate account, but still with the mysterious motor problems.
In his Semi-Final the 2003 World Rally Champion lay in a rather safe position for to reach the all decisive Final when he was faced with a flat front tyre. Solberg dropped down to sixth place to miss the main event. “I did not hit something, so it was pure bad luck with that puncture. But the engine problems we need to figure out as soon as we get back home. This is the major point on our plan,” said the Rallycross returnee before leaving Hungary.
Liam Doran, “Stecka” Walfridsson and Michaël De Keersmaecker
Sunday’s action at the Nyirádi Motorsport Centrum had started with an early morning warm-up, Liam Doran driving the fastest time here. The Briton was in good mood now, but in the following 3rd heat overcooked it all. While chasing the leading Petter Solberg daredevil Liam clipped the trackwall to crash his DS3 very badly. The ripped off right front wheel was rather a minor problem, but the bend rollcage of the Citroën did all but to impress the scrutineers, they took the Englishman out of the game. Liam Doran on the incident: “Big crash in Heat 3 put me out of the event. I was having a great weekend, fastest yesterday and fastest in warm-up this morning. Guess that’s just racing sometimes. Going to head back to the workshop and try to get the car fixed for Finland.”
Similar situation with Stig-Olov Walfridsson’s Renault after the Saturday crash, “Stecka” was not allowed to continue racing on Sunday with the bend rollcage of his 5-cylinder Clio Mk3.
The next and even more serious shunt was produced in Heat 4 by Michaël De Keersmaecker. After dicing for a while with local Mitsubishi Lancer E6 driver Zoltán Vass the Belgian had a defective tyre, but nevertheless pressed on regardless. With the result that MDK smashed his Peugeot 208 at a speed of over 100kms/h against the trackwall, a subsequent triple barrel roll converted the rather new French SuperCar into something completely undriveable.
More pictures to be found in our Gallery here.
Official SuperCars results here.
Official Super1600s results here.
Official TouringCars results here.
Day 2 video highlights.
