Team Peugeot-Hansen is ready to launch FIA World Rallycross Championship campaign at Montalegre in Portugal.
As Rallycross enters a new dawn and the start of the new-for-2014 FIA World Rallycross Championship, the brand new Team Peugeot-Hansen, supported by Peugeot, Red Bull and Total, are gearing up for the first round of the series that gets underway in the Vila Real region of Portugal at the Montalegre circuit this weekend (May 3 and 4).
The Portuguese event will mark the debut of the teams brand new 550 bhp+ Peugeot 208 T16 Supercar machines, which will be driven by double FIA European Rallycross Champion Timur Timerzyanov (2012 and 2013) and 2013 European Championship event winner Timmy Hansen, who enters his second season in Rallycross having moved from circuit racing.
Bruno Famin, Director of Peugeot Sport, is excited by the Team Peugeot Hansen line-up for the 2014 campaign: “World RX is a new era for motorsport. It is very fast and easy for TV but still great motorsport. We have a strong team for the coming season with a pair of very talented drivers. Timur is very experienced, he is already a champion and Timmy is a young pilot with a great potential.”
Timur Timerzyanov and Timmy Hansen are ready to fight for Peugeot with their all-new 208 SuperCars. © Red Bull Media House/ERC24
Led by 14-time European Rallycross Champion Kenneth Hansen, the team brings together some of the most experienced people in the sport for an assault on both the drivers’ championship, and the new teams championship in World RX 2014. Hansen is excited by the challenge as the sport heads into a new era of World Championship competition: “For me, it is fantastic that such great organisation like Peugeot have seen the potential in Rallycross. We have been doing Rallycross most of our lives and it’s great that Peugeot wanted to become involved,” said the Swede. “Rallycross is stepping up to a new level now with the World Championship. It will be tougher than ever but together with Peugeot, Total and Red Bull, we believe that we can achieve success.”
Russian driver Timerzyanov has seven European Rallycross victories and two European Rallycross Championship titles to his name since he graduated to the sport’s top division in 2011 and is looking forward to getting the new season underway this weekend. “This is a new challenge for me and it’s really great to have such partners for the team, their commitment to the project is fantastic. Our main goal is points for the team so we can try to win the teams championship, but we also want to fight for the drivers’ championship too,” said Timerzyanov. “The new 208 will be a great car; the team are very experienced and always strong. I’m really looking forward to Portugal; it has been a very good circuit to me in the past.”
Timerzyanov’s team mate, Timmy Hansen, amazed regular Rallycross runners in 2013. The young Swede finished third in his debut season of European Rallycross competition, winning his third event as a full-time driver in Hungary, and scoring several podium finishes during the year. Hansen will return to Portugal this weekend with more experience and new goals for the year ahead: “Last year was an amazing year. To come from circuit racing to racing on loose gravel was all very new to me and I learnt a huge amount,” said Hansen. “I have been working hard over the winter and I am very excited to take this next big step racing around in World. It is an honour to have been given this opportunity to work with some of the most successful people in motorsport, I’m so excited to start racing!”
Top photo: Threefold ERC winner Timur Timerzyanov and his 550+bhp Peugeot 208 SuperCar. © Red Bull Media House/ERC24