2019 World RX of Spain

Catalunya Debrief - What the Teams Said

Catalunya Debrief - What the Teams Said

Check out what the teams had to say from round two of the FIA World Rallycross Championship, the Cooper Tires World RX of Catalunya.

May 1, 2019 by Richie Murray
Catalunya Debrief - What the Teams Said

Check out what the teams had to say from round two of the FIA World Rallycross Championship,  the Cooper Tires World RX of Catalunya.


Team Hansen MJP:

Timmy Hansen P1, Kevin Hansen P2

Timmy Hansen: “I think this has been the best weekend of my career so far. We got off to the best possible start on Saturday, winning the qualifying heats, and then we won the semi-final too. For the final I lined up against Kevin, and we played a good team game as we agreed that we would give each other plenty of room. The final was perfect as well, and when I saw in my mirror that Kevin was behind me to finish second, that was a really special moment as well. I was actually feeling very emotional: this was the perfect revenge after everything that happened in Abu Dhabi. Now I’m just going to enjoy the moment and head to Spa with even more confidence.”


Monster Energy RX Cartel:

Andreas Bakkerud P3, Liam Doran P10

Andreas Bakkerud: “Stoked to be back on the podium! You guys know me.. I always want to win, but I have to be happy with this one. Having to fight in from the outside made it difficult, but I feel good and I’m really looking forward to Spa, Belgium. We need some gold ASAP. Flat out!!”


GRX Taneco:

Niclas Gronholm P4, Timur Timerzyanov P7

Niclas Gronholm: “I must say this was a mixed weekend for me. Despite some issues with the car, I managed to be close to the top by the semi-finals and got through to the final. Sadly, there I had to follow a fellow competitor, who was slower than me, for several laps and I lost out on a possible podium spot. It is what it is now and we have to look forward, but not forget what happened today.”


GCK Academy:

Cyril Raymond P5, Guillaume De Ridder P11

Cyril Raymond: “We had a near perfect weekend – fifth in the World Championship is huge for me, it’s a great result! To be among the top five World RX drivers is crazy. Without the work of the team behind me I could never have realised that, we believed until the end, we always believed. The engineers and mechanics have done a lot of work on the Clio R.S. RX, I’m really happy for the team who really deserve this after the long months of hard work. They are always there, they are full of support and it is great for the entire team, a big victory for our second ever race. We need to stay concentrated, it’s a long championship but it’s only the second round in my first ever World Rallycross season.”


Team STARD:

Janis Baumanis P6, Jani Paasonen P16

Janis Baumanis: “What a nice and sunny weekend in Catalunya! In the semi-final I managed to find my way to passed Szabo and qualify for the final. Despite finishing P6, the team has done an awesome job and I'm happy to have the best reaction time in the final.”


EKS Sport:

Krisztian Szabo P8

Krisztian Sazbo: “Unfortunately we failed to get to the finals today in Barcelona. I fought a tough battle with Baumanis in the semi-finals, but I didn't get lucky. I’m learning from my mistakes to be better in the next competitions.”


ALL-INKL.COM Muennich Motorsport:

Timo Scheider P12

Timo Scheider: “Conclusion Barcelona: Good speed but not a good result! We had great expectations and we were able to prove the speed only occasionally. With P5 in the semi-final the weekend was over! We look forward and continue, to give up is no solution.”


GC Kompetition:

Guerlain Chicherit P9, Anton Marklund P14

Guerlain Chicherit: “It’s been a weekend of ups and downs for us - some really good race pace and solid starts but unfortunately also technical issues that have cropped up again following Abu Dhabi that we didn’t manage to fix fully in the time in between races. Overall, we’ve had a good first European race of the season though and the incredibly hard work of the entire team is really coming together now. Having three cars (Note: 1 GC Kompetition car and 2 GCK Academy cars) in the semi- finals and our very first final for our young team GCK Academy is an incredible result. We’ll be busy now to get all four cars ready for Spa, Belgium, for even better results.”


ESmotorsport – Labas GAS:

Rokas Baciuska P13

Rokas Baciuska: “A weekend with a lot of different emotions! This how I could describe the race in Barcelona. A lot of hard work, believing in myself and only 0.5 seconds away from being in the semi-finals. But as people say ‘what doesn’t kill us makes us stronger”. We will analyse what we could be done better and come back with new force in Belgium.”


Xite Racing

Chris Hoy P15, Oliver Bennett P17

Chris Hoy: “Annnd relax!!!.. Phew, that was some weekend of racing in my first World RX event. I made it into the top 15 so I now have championship points! Thanks to Oliver Bennett, Brian Bennett, Scooter and the whole team for their hard work, and MotorTrend for making it happen.”