Timmy Hansen went into the race weekend at Nyirad claiming that he needed to win both races to stay in title contention.
While he only claimed one overall victory – his fourth win of the year – the near-perfect weekend put him right back into the points conversation, with him moving up to second, one point ahead of Topi Heikkinen in third and a mere nine behind leader Kevin Hansen.
„It was a good weekend, a first and second place is great,“ he said. „Kevin came first and third, Topi second and fourth so I grabbed the most points from here but we’re getting closer so slowly.“
„I had a fantastic weekend, but it doesn’t mean many more points than Kevin, it’s like two points that I caught,“ he added. „It’s just slowly catching up.“
„Sunday was even closer, there was more people that were really fast – Jerome [Groset-Janin], ‘CsuCsu’, Abbie [Eaton], they were really fast,“ Hansen said. „Laptime-wise it was closer, you couldn’t afford a mistake and I kept the day clean.“ „It was more-or-less that Kevin got the better draw and has just stayed ahead, but it’s harder than it sounds because it’s so easy to make a mistake at some point in the weekend and somebody else takes the lead, and then it’s up to that guy to keep it together.“
Hansen felt like he was on the top of his game at the weekend, but rallycross‘ unpredictable nature meant that the opportunity to get even more out of the weekend was out of his hands.
„On Sunday I felt like I drove really well, I was really fast, had good launches, but [it] still that wasn’t enough because Kevin got a better draw so he got off in front and he did an equally good job so there was not a moment where I was near enough to get by him,“ he said. „He was strong, but I’m also happy about my performance today, but that meant second place for me on Sunday, On Saturday it meant first.“
The Nyirad weekend marked a return for Hansen to the venue of his first supercar rallycross victory. That, coupled with his near-constant activity this season in TitansRX, World Rallycross, and Nitro Rallycross, is something that Hansen feels puts him and brother Kevin in a much stronger position that most rallycross drivers.
„This year we’ve been in the car all the time, weekend after weekend we’re racing somewhere and always in a rallycross car on the track so part of the gains is that you get very quickly into things, even though it’s another car, you’re always up to speed,“ he said. „I think that really showed here that we were directly on the pace again. It’s just another weekend for us with racing, it’s been great fun this year.“
Just one race weekend remains for TitansRX, with the season finale at Estering in Germany offering double points from both of its series rounds. That means that even more is at stake for the three title contenders.
„It’s going to be so hard. Rallycross is quite random and unpredictable by nature so it’s hard, sometimes you doing your best job is not enough,“ he said. „Buxtehude has double points so a lot can happen there and if I have a good first day then everything can be open. We’ll see, I’ll go there and enjoy that track, it’s one that I like and it’s very special.
