2019 World RX of Spain

Winners and Losers: Catalunya RX

Winners and Losers: Catalunya RX

The FIA World RX Championship returned to Catalunya last weekend. Here's a look at the winners and losers from the event.

May 4, 2019 by Richie Murray
Winners and Losers: Catalunya RX

The FIA World Rallycross Championship returned to Europe for the Cooper Tires World RX of Catalunya last weekend, where Team Hansen MJP scored a one-two finish and Andreas Bakkerud returned to the podium.


The WINNERS

Team Hansen MJP

The maximum points a World RX team can score in a single event is 56, if its drivers finish one-two in the Intermediate Classification, both win their semi-finals then finish one-two in the final, and that’s exactly what Team Hansen MJP did at Catalunya RX last weekend.

"I’ve been fortunate enough to have a lot of success in my career as a driver, winning many races and championships, but actually I think this feeling right now is even better. I can’t actually believe that it’s happened, so it’s going to take a while to sink in. There’s no way that we could have done better – so the expectation is even higher now, as the very best we could do from now on is equal what we have achieved now. And I think that will be very difficult to do, but of course we will try,” said Team Principal Kenneth Hansen. “I feel so happy and most of all so proud, both of what we have created with the Hansen MJP team but also as a dad. It’s hard to describe what it’s like seeing your boys finishing first and second, fighting so hard but so fairly. They think of the team first and they’re great friends. I think Timmy had something extra this weekend, while Kevin had to fight a bit harder, but they learn from each other all the time and that’s the biggest strength of our family team."


Andreas Bakkerud

Timmy Hansen wasn’t the only driver to receive expensive and substantial damage to his car in the first round of World RX in Abu Dhabi. The Q3 incident also caused Monster Energy RX Cartel’s Andreas Bakkerud to retire from the event, but the six-time World RX race winner battled back through round two in Catalunya to finished on the podium for the third year in a row.


Cyril Raymond

P8, P6, P13, P7 were France’s Cyril Raymond’s results through the four qualifiers in the World RX of Catalunya to make it comfortably into the semi-finals, he then beat Russia’s Timur Timerzyanov and his GCK team mates Guerlian Chicherit and Guillaume De Ridder to make the final, where he finished fifth.


Chris Hoy

Six time Olympic Gold winner Chris Hoy made his ‘baptism of fire’ World RX debut with the Xite Racing team in Catalunya and delivered a strong performance for someone who had only had a single day testing, and hadn’t raced on anything other than tarmac before. To cap off a strong weekend, Hoy ended the event with a pair of FIA World Championship points.


THE LOSERS

Anton Marklund

Sweden’s Anton Marklund had a difficult second round of World RX in Catalunya. The GC Kompetition driver’s Renault Megane RS RX refused to start while on the pre-grid for Q1, putting him on the back foot. He was P10 and P3 in Q2 and Q3, but had his chances of making into the semi-finals ended when he jumped the start in Q4 and had to take two joker laps as penalty.


Timo Scheider

After starring in Abu Dhabi driving ALL-INKL.COM Muennich Motorsport’s new Seat Ibiza in his full-time return to World RX, Timo Scheider’s season took a difficult turn in round two. With a combination of battling through traffic and technical problems, Scheider did make it into the semi-finals but he couldn’t repeat his podium challenge from round one and finished fifth in semi-final two, climbing a position from sixth when EKS Sport’s Krisztian Szabo spun at the final corner.


Rokas Baciuska

In a similar way to Scheider, ESmotorsport – Labas GAS and Lithuania’s Rokas Baciuska had a more difficult event in round two. Without any standout problems, but working on the setup of the new car, the Skoda Fabia WRX team was 12th in three of the qualifiers, and just missed the top 12 in the Intermediate Classification and a place in the semi-finals.


Knapick

France’s Herve Knapick was the driver that lost out most in Catalunya. The 72-year old rolled his Citroen DS3 in Q1 at the second corner and the Knapick Competition team were unable to repair the car to take part in the rest of the weekend. “Knapick” plans to return to international action immediately, in the third round of World RX at Spa.