Hell Debrief | What the Teams Said
Hell Debrief | What the Teams Said
The World Rallycross Championship Team Verksted World RX of Norway was a dramatic one, to say the least! Here’s what the teams had to say.
Round Five of the 2019 FIA World Rallycross Championship, the Team Verksted World RX of Norway was a dramatic one, to say the least!
Here’s what the teams had to say:
GRX Taneco:
Niclas Gronholm P1, Timur Timerzyanov P7
Niclas Gronholm: “This is not how I imagined my first ever World RX win to come, but that’s not my decision and I will take it as it is. There are a lot of positive things to take from this weekend. We were on top of our game for most of the race and I think we had the package to win it on the track. In the Final there was no grip at the first row of the start grid and that pretty much defined how this run played out. We have the next race in just a few weeks and performance in Norway gives us a vision on what we must aim at.”
Team Hansen MJP:
Timmy Hansen P2, Kevin Hansen P6
Timmy Hansen “Though the semi-final didn’t go our way, we scored some good points this weekend. We had a strong qualifying and that built a good foundation in terms of points. We kept ourselves in a good position before the rain came. The rain before the finals was a big shock and turned everything upside down. We went through the entire season without wet conditions and suddenly it was fully wet. That meant we had to guess a few things and so we didn’t choose the right settings for the launch. I had a poor start and tried everything I could to get past, but couldn’t find a gap. Having Niclas back for this weekend was good to see, even if he beat us this time! It was nice to have a really good challenge through the weekend. If it had stayed dry we could have had a real battle on our hands. It was just not my turn today. I did my best, but today was not my day.”
Team STARD:
Janis Baumanis P3, Jani Paasonen P13
Janis Baumanis: “After a bad start in Q1, where I made a stupid and unnecessary mistake, we had a really good Q2. We didn’t really have the lap time pace except in Q4, but then in the semi-final everything changed. There was nothing much we could do with the car with no time in the pre-grid, we just had to adjust our minds for the wet conditions. I enjoyed the driving, apart from the low visibility but in the final, everything went well until on the fifth lap when Doran blocked me for around 1.5 seconds, so I didn’t manage to pass Gronholm for third. Then later, we got onto the podium. Obviously this is not the way we want to get on the podium but a race is a race and technical rules are technical rules. This is one of the best birthday presents I’ve ever had – I’m really happy for the team because they really deserve it, we were fighting for this for three years and we’ve been so close a few times. Finally we are there. It’s a little bit frustrating that we didn’t get to stand on the actual podium and celebrate, but we will keep fighting to do that in the coming races.”
ESmotorsport Labas-GAS:
Kevin Abbring P4
Kevin Abbring: “YEAH!! P2 in the semis and virtually led the final. What a debut. So much to learn but we definitely kicked some ass. Thanks for the support, everyone has been amazing, see you at Holjes!”
Monster Energy RX Cartel:
Liam Doran P5, Andreas Bakkerud P8
Liam Doran: “What a day. It has been a real rollercoaster of emotions. Going front not qualifying, winning the semi, leading the final, having a technical issue… Finished P5 and obviously disappointed, but this is racing.”
ALL-INKL.COM Muennich Motorsport:
Timo Scheider P9
Timo Scheider: “First time this year that the Quali heats went to plan…unfortunately not the finals. DNF in semi one kicked us out for the finals…my car was the best so far in 2019 that’s the good thing! Let’s keep this for the season highlight in three weekend time at Holjes. Thanks to the team for a fantastic job this weekend.”
GCK Academy:
Cyril Raymond P10, Guillaume De Ridder P15, Rokas Baciuska P16
Guillaume De Ridder: “The weekends follow each other at the moment in that they seem to look alike, unfortunately. It was a tough weekend again with tough luck, for example in Q1 we had a great start and were ahead of the others and then got smashed into from behind, so ended up with a DNF. Q2 showed some good lap times which is really promising, so I was hoping for a good second day today. However, unfortunately, we lost time due to a bad start in Q3 and then had technical issues in Q4. It’s a big shame and I hope that Sweden is able to turn my luck around.”
GC Kompetition:
Guerlain Chicherit P11, Anton Marklund DSQ
Guerlain Chicherit: “I’m extremely disappointed for Anton. He really deserved this win and has been fighting hard, together with the entire team, for today. He definitely delivered what we set out to do this weekend and in my eyes he’s still a winner. We respect the rules and will just have to come back stronger from it. We’re working with our supplier to ensure we get to the bottom of the issue. I personally had a frustrating end to the weekend with contact resulting in me losing any chance of a spot in the final but that’s racing sometimes. Bring on Sweden.”
EKS Sport:
Krisztian Szabo P12
Krisztian Sazbo: “Hell of a weekend in Hell. Unfortunately I failed to get into the semi-finals after a heavy Q3 and Q4. We’re looking forward, three weeks to go until Holjes.”
Xite Racing:
Oliver Bennett P14
Oliver Bennett: “Hell treated me unkindly this weekend. Struggled to find the speed at this circuit. Tough day, didn’t make it through to the semis.”
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