Timmy Hansen returned to winning ways in Montalegre, topping the charts in every single session to claim his second clean sweep of the weekend.
It marked a big turnaround for the Swede, because although he finished on the podium in round five, Hansen was determined to unlock more speed and overhaul brother and points leader Kevin Hansen come Sunday.
„The results have gone much better, it was a perfect day,“ Timmy Hansen said of his round six win. „I’m happier with my driving today than I was on Saturday, there was something missing on the gravel section and I think I figured out how to do it overnight.“
„I’ve been way more aggressive on the gravel, also I was able to take the starts, get the pole positions, but it’s only in the final that you get the points so everything that I did today didn’t count until we were on the start line for the final,“ he added. „I had pole position but I had to do everything perfect once again.“
Timmy Hansen went head-to-head with Kevin Hansen and fellow title contender Topi Heikkinen in the round six final, and made the most of a first corner coming together to take the lead, and from there he never looked back.
„Kevin had a brilliant start, he still had hot tyres from semi two and he had an amazing launch and he beat me off the line,“ he said. „Then unfortunately for him there was a big train of cars on the inside and I got pushed from the back by Topi, Topi got pushed from the back by someone and there was Kevin at the front to pay the price.“
„I repassed him in the first corner, and it was a tricky final with water on the track and Kevin behind was super-fast but I manged to just keep it together and keep in front so it feels great to have the trophy.“
Hansen’s win was the result of a change of approach overnight, and he believes the lessons learned in Montalegre will serve him well at other points in his career going forward.
„Setup changes maybe made me a bit more comfortable, but I’ve changed my style – you keep learning every day, I’ve been doing rallycross for a long time but yesterday I learned something that I think was valuable and I’ll bring that onto gravel,“ he said. „I’ve learnt to master gravel since I started racing but maybe today I found the key to take that next step.“
