Timmy Hansen leads Catalunya qualifying after opening heats

Timmy Hansen ended the first day of World Rallycross of Barcelona-Catalunya at the top of the standings, taking the overnight top qualifier spot for the second event in a row.

As in Abu Dhabi, the elder Hansen brother won both of his heat races and set the fastest time of each round while doing so. He beat brother Kevin Hansen, Timur Timerzyanov, and Andreas Bakkerud in both rounds – the result of Q2 matching that of Q1.

At the halfway point in qualifying Krisztian Szabo holds fifth place, helped by a win in his Q2 heat. The Hungarian finished ahead of Cyril Raymond who had an impressive qualifying session with a brace of second place finishes in his heat races. He held the fastest Q2 time until Timmy Hansen went more than 2.5 seconds quicker in his own four-lap dash.

Janis Baumanis ended the day seventh overall, one spot ahead of Guerlain Chicherit and Abu Dhabi podium finisher Niclas Gronholm.

At the end of Saturday running Timo Scheider, who won his Q2 heat race, Rokas Baciuška, and Liam Doran hold the final three transfer spots.

Of the drivers making their first World RX appearances of 2019, Tamas Karai was the highest ranked in 13th place, ahead of Guillaume De Ridder who once again had a tough qualifying run with a pair of fourth place race finishes which put him 14th and 15th overall in each round.

Six-time Olympic gold medallist and sports car racing regular Sir Chris Hoy had a difficult time on track in his first rallycross event. He jumped the start in Q1, then spun at the end of Q2 – he ended Saturday’s running 15th overall.

Anton Marklund won his Q2 heat but failed to make the start in Q1 so is currently ranked 18th, ahead of only Herve Knapick who rolled in Q1 and then sat out of Q2.

 

World RX of Barcelona-Catalunya qualifying standings (after day 1)

		Q1	Q2	Q3	Q4	QP
1.	Timmy Hansen	50	50			100
2.	Kevin Hansen	45	45			90
3.	Timur Timerzyanov	42	42			84
4.	Andreas Bakkerud	39	39			78
5.	Krisztian Szabo	35	40			75
6.	Cyril Raymond	36	38			74
7.	Janis Baumanis	37	36			73
8.	Guerlain Chicherit	40	32			72
9.	Niclas Gronholm	38	33			71
10.	Timo Scheider	33	37			70
11.	Rokas Baciuska	32	35			67
12.	Liam Doran	34	31			65
13.	Tamas Karai	31	30			61
14.	Guillaume De Ridder	30	29			59
15.	Christopher Hoy	28	27			55
16.	Jani Paasonen	29	26			55
17.	Oliver Bennett	24	28			52
18.	Anton Marklund	0	34			34
19.	Herve Knapick	24	0			24