HANSEN SURVIVES THE PRESSURE TO PUT HIMSELF ON TOP OF THE WORLD
Hal Ridge watched a dramatic World RX finale in Killarney which crowned the Peugeot racer as champ
Well out of the race to become the 2019 champion, British driver Liam Doran entered the final round of the World Rallycross Championship in South Africa with a single target: to do everything he could to assist team-mate Andreas Bakkerud in claiming the crown. Meanwhile, Hansen brothers Timmy and Kevin both entered the season finale with hopes of claiming a first title. Timmy Hansen was a single point ahead of Bakkerud and younger brother Kevin was seven further back.
And, while Doran’s weekend was plagued by technical issues that meant he could do little to support Bakkerud on track, he was able to assist eventually but it wasn’t enough to stop Timmy Hansen taking the crown.
The points leader had been first to set a fastest time in Q1. The fastest drivers ran in the first race of Q2, in the slowest of the track conditions and it was only Niclas Gronholm who would prevail to set the fastest time.
With 16 competitors in the Cape
Town event, each qualifying session was run as four races of four cars.
But, Doran failed to start Q1 after an engine problem in Free Practice forced a unit to be changed and that took marginally too long for him to make the grid. A driveshaft broke in Q2 and hampered his cause further.
Based on the times from Q2, Bakkerud had been set to start his Q3 race together with the Hansen brothers with Timmy on pole. But, with one of the most astute operators in motorsport, former champion and EKS team owner Mattias Ekstrom, having flown in to support Bakkerud for the second event in a row, the RX Cartel squad withdrew Doran from Q3. That meant the grid order was changed to three races of five cars, which put Bakkerud on pole in race one. Hansen would start from fourth in race two.
Delivering impeccably, Bakkerud set the three fastest laps of the weekend in the opening three tours before taking his joker, laying down the marker for Hansen. But the Swede responded. Winning the start, helped in part by brother Kevin allowing him around the outside at Turn 1, Timmy’s first three laps were even faster than Bakkerud’s and he stopped the clocks almost two seconds faster.
Gronholm jumped the start in Q3 and had to take two jokers but was still fourth fastest and ultimately qualified top of the Intermediate Classification.
Bakkerud made the best start to semi-final one and took the lead of the first knock-out race from Gronholm and claimed victory, to secure a frontrow start for the final. Timmy Hansen then matched the result by winning semi-final two, with Kevin Hansen sacrificing his own title hopes to fend off the attentions of Timo Scheider into the first corner. It was Timmy Hansen who lined up on pole for the final, two points ahead of Bakkerud in the standings.
Bakkerud, again, made the best launch in the title-deciding final and took the lead around the outside at Turn 1.
With eight points for victory in the final to five points for second, a win would have been enough for Bakkerud to take the crown. But the Norwegian ran wide at the Killarney circuit’s long Turn 6 loose-surface right-hander and Hansen put the nose of his Peugeot 208 up the inside of Bakkerud’s Audi S1.
The pair touched with Bakkerud’s Audi drifting into the wall on the outside before bouncing back into Hansen, who was spun around the front of Bakkerud’s car.
As Kevin Hansen spun to the inside in avoidance, Bakkerud also ended up with his nose facing the barrier on the outside. Gronholm avoided the melee to take the lead.
Bakkerud recovered to run second and stayed ahead of Gronholm’s early-jokering GRX team-mate Timur Timerzyanov after his own lap-five joker.
Gronholm took the win, his second of the year, as Bakkerud and Timerzyanov completed the podium. But, behind Timmy Hansen had recovered to be fifth on lap one, which became fourth when Scheider spun with a problem mid-race. Bakkerud and Hansen finished the season level on points but, on countback, with four wins to Bakkerud’s one, it was Hansen who claimed the crown.
Kevin Hansen finished third in the standings as Team Hansen MJP also took the teams’ title, with Gronholm fourth in the driver’s points, only 25 off the leaders having missed two events mid-year through illness.
The FIA stewards investigated the lap-one drama in the South African final for almost three hours after the race, but the decision was made to take no action.
British driver Oliver Bennett made the semi-finals for the second time in the campaign, but retired after Turn 1 contact.