Hansen leads Holjes RX in front of packed home crowd

Team Peugeot-Hansen’s Timmy Hansen is leading the Volkswagen World RX of Sweden, round six of the FIA World Rallycross Championship presented by Monster Energy, after taking the heat one victory and finishing fourth fastest in heat two.

Ford Olsbergs MSE driver Andreas Bakkerud won heat two and is placed second overnight. His team-mate Reinis Nitiss holds third after the 19-year-old Latvian finished 0.6 seconds behind Bakkerud in heat two. Reigning World RX Champion Petter Solberg was quickest during this morning’s free practice but some glitches with his car’s engine saw the driver slip to fourth after two heats. Last year’s Holjes RX winner Mattias Ekstrom rounds off the top five in his Audi S1 EKS Quattro.

Good strategy

“It’s been a great day and it’s fantastic to take a heat win at my home event. I was up against some big names in the first heat [Solberg, Kristoffersson and Bakkerud] so the win felt even sweeter,” confirmed 22-year-old Hansen who posted the quickest heat of the day with a time of 2 minutes 59.8 seconds. “We had a good strategy in heat one and it paid off. The team are making some small changes to the car now but everything is feeling good and I’m confident we can continue for a good result tomorrow.”

Hansen’s team-mate Davy Jeanney was third in heat two but a front-right puncture in the opening heat prevented the Frenchman from finishing today further up the leaderboard.

“I feel we’ve had good pace today. We have pushed today but haven’t done anything silly,” explained Bakkerud. “We’ve had two good starts and on the second heat, myself and Reinis discussed a strategy before we started the race. Reinis took the Joker on the first lap and I took the normal line which worked well. We had four clean laps and it was a brilliant way to finish the day in front of so many fans, friends and family who are here to support me this weekend.”

The all-new Volkswagen Beetle Supercar

Daniel Holten had a solid outing in the all-new Volkswagen Beetle Supercar taking a race win and ending today 16th out of the 35 Supercars that are entered. Holten summarised his day: “The Beetle is brand new so there’s a lot of learning to do but we make some adjustments to the car’s set-up before heat two and everything is feeling good. I love this track, I’ve been driving here for six years so I know it well. I’ve got pole position in my first race tomorrow so my aim to get a good start and to get a good time so I can try to make the top 12 tomorrow.”

Elsewhere Volkswagen Sweden’s Johan Kristoffersson – who is second in the overall drivers’ standings - showed good pace in his Polo RX Supercar but was given a five second penalty after exceeding track limits. He ends the day 11th overall.

Super1600, TouringCar and RX Lites categories

Ulrik Linnemann, Ben-Philip Gundersen and Andreas Wernersson lead the Super1600, TouringCar and RX Lites categories.

Denmark’s Linnemann won the first two heats and was second in his heat two race to Janis Baumanis, who is second overall. Russian Nikita Misyulya ran behind Linnemann throughout the last heat race and is third.

In TouringCar, Ben-Philip Gundersen was fastest twice to lead the rear-wheel drive division, ahead of series leader Fredrik Salsten, who was only about to set 16th fastest time in heat two due to a left rear puncture. Philip Gehrman is third. Sweden’s Magda Andersson won her third heat race much to the delight of the home crown and is fifth after three heats.

In the RX Lites Cup, Kevin Eriksson was fastest in heat two as Kevin Hansen spun but it is Olsbergs MSE driver Andreas Wernersson who leads after three heats. Simon Olofsson is second while Kevin Hansen set the third fastest time in heat three to lie third overall.

Heats three and four

Tomorrow’s action begins at 9.30am (local time) with warm-up for all classes. Heats three and four will run from 11am, while the S1600, TouringCar and Supercar semi-finals/finals are scheduled between 2 and 5pm. The post event press conference will be held at 5.10pm.

FIA World Rallycross