Hansen tops day one in Turkey World Rallycross

Timmy Hansen picked up where he left off in Italy by topping the order at the end of day one in Turkey, the eleventh round of the FIA World Rallycross Championship.

Having been third fastest behind Toomas Heikkinen and Richard Goransson in heat one, Hansen led World Champion Petter Solberg from turn one of heat two to set the fastest time of the day and be top overnight. Heikkinen would have also been near the top in heat two had he not jumped the start and had to take the joker lap twice as a result. Despite that, he is second overall. Richard Goransson continues to impress and is third overnight with Andreas Bakkerud fourth. The young Norwegian has had a difficult second half of the season having been right at the sharp end earlier in the year, but was on good for at the Intercity Istanbul Park and beat Petter Solberg in their heat two race, in part due to a half spin for Solberg in their race, who is fifth.

Reinis Nitiss and Anton Marklund both felt they made mistakes in their heat races on day one and are sixth and seventh respectively. Both will hope to improve by the end of heat four tomorrow to aid their team’s positions in the teams championship standings, OlsbergsMSE and Marklund Motorsport are currently tied at the top of the order with two events to go. The EKS RX squad had a harder day than most Edward Sandstrom raced hard with Nitiss and Marklund in heat two and was eighth, he holds the same position overnight.  Henning Solberg was top LD Motorsports run driver in ninth, with stable mate Derek Tohill just behind in tenth.

Albatec Racing field father and son team Andy and Marc Scott this weekend. While British RX150 racer Marc learns his way in a different car to his normal steed, Andy was on good form, leading in heat two until he was spun out by Jos Jansen, who Scott was lapping at the time. It was the second incident that Jansen had be involved in during the race, starting in the middle he squeezed Andy Scott into Timur Timerzyanov, the Russian hitting the wall on the inside and ripping off a wheel. The outgoing European rallycross champion had earlier been slowed in heat one with a handbrake problem.

Lars Oivind Enerberg is also learning a new car to him in Turkey, he makes his debut for the Monster Energy team with minimal pre-event experience, and was slowed with turbo issues. PG Andersson is another to make a debut for a new team, he is driving the EKS RX Audi S1 used previously by Pontus Tidemand. The Swede’s event didn’t get off to the best start, the squad having to change the car’s engine, he missed heat one but recovered to be second fastest in heat two, he will be one to watch tomorrow. Sten Oja makes his second appearance of the season as team mate to Solberg in PSRX, but a turbo problem in practice denied him a chance of starting either of the first two heats, even if the problem can be fixed before tomorrow, he is effectively out of the event.

In RX Lites, Sebastien Eriksson heads the order ahead of Italy winner Daniel Holten and Super1600 racer with Janis Baumanis, who makes his first appearance in the series in Turkey and impressively recovered from rolling his car in the first heat.

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