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july 03, 2017 - Peugeot

Sweden brings the PEUGEOT 208 WRX and Sébastien Loeb more podium success

Round seven of the 2017 FIA World Rallycross Championship saw Sébastien Loeb play a front-running role once again, this time in front of a record-breaking 45, 100-strong crowd at Holjes, Sweden, where he claimed Team Peugeot Hansen's fifth podium honours of the campaign.

• The twoPEUGEOT #208wrx drivers kicked off the 2017 season's second half by puttingadditional pressure on the championship's provisional leaders. SébastienLoeb started the 'Magic' weekend at Höljes in emphatic fashion with Q1 victory.He then came second in Sunday's first semi-final before adding anothertop-three result to his burgeoning #wrx record.

 

• Afterhis crash in Norway, Timmy Hansen had anew shell for his home meeting where he concluded qualifying in fifth place.He ultimately bagged fourth spot, just behind his French team-mate.

 

• Team Peugeot Hansen's harvest of 42 points at Holjes has strengthened its grip on second place in theprovisional Teams' classification.

 

  • It was a frustrating weekend for KevinHansen, however. The reigning European champion was running well in his2016-specification PEUGEOT #208wrx when a half-shaft failure ruined his chancesof an appearance in the semi-finals.

 

Quote, unquote...

                                                                                                                         

Kenneth Hansen (Team Principal)

"It was another special weekend at Höljes where the atmosphere was reallysuperb. We knew it would be close because the championship's current leader isvery fast, but we proved a real threat, as illustrated by Sébastien's victoryin the opening qualifying session. We have improved our starts and we gave itour best shot, so there is every reason to feel pleased with the third andfourth places we scored in the final. We would obviously have preferred to havewon but we haven't given up hope of notching up a victory very soon. The pointsscored by our two drivers have strengthened our hold on second place in thechampionship."

 

Sébastien Loeb (PEUGEOT #208wrx #9), 3rd

"It was pretty good weekend on the whole. We have succeeded in closing thegap to Volkswagen, especially when grip is good. My car ran well and I found agood set-up which meant we were on the pace. I won Q1 and was then second in mysemi-final, which suggests we are progressing in the right direction. We just lacka little outright performance. My diary is quite packed ahead of the next roundin Canada since I'm off to Russia on Wednesday morning to take part in the SilkWay #rally in the new PEUGEOT 3008 DKR Maxi."

 

Timmy Hansen (PEUGEOT #208wrx #21), 4th

"I love the team spirit you always get at this round. It wasn't a badweekend for me because I reached the final for the seventh time from sevenstarts this year. Unfortunately, I still haven't managed to finish on the topstep of the podium this season but I'm not far off. We were really strong inqualifying, in the semis and in the final and it's great to be in the thick ofthe fight."

 

Kevin Hansen (PEUGEOT #208wrx #71), 13th

"Everything went well for me on Saturday. I had a good rhythm and I postedsome decent lap times which was encouraging. My time in this morning's warm-upsession made me think that form would continue today, so I was very disappointedwhen a driveshaft broke at the start of Q3. I did my best to recover the situationin Q4 but the track was fairly slow so I couldn't manage any higher than 13thafter qualifying. That was so frustrating because I believe I was faster than Ihave been since the start of the season."

 

 

FINAL POSITIONS – HOLJES (July 2, 2017)

1. Johan Kristoffersson (VolkswagenPolo GTI)

2. Andreas Bakkerud (Ford Focus RS)

3. Sébastien Loeb (PEUGEOT 208 WRX)

4. Timmy Hansen (PEUGEOT 208 WRX)

5. Kevin Eriksson (Ford Fiesta)

6. Janis Baumanis (Ford Fiesta)

 

PROVISIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP STANDINGSAFTER SEVEN ROUNDS

Drivers

1. Johan Kristoffersson (VolkswagenPolo GTI), 181 points

2. Petter Solberg (Volkswagen PoloGTI), 150 points

3. Mattias Ekström (AudiS1), 143 points

4. Sébastien Loeb (PEUGEOT 208 WRX), 125 points

5. Andreas Bakkerud (Ford Focus RS), 124 points

6. Timmy Hansen (PEUGEOT 208 WRX), 121 points

7. Ken Block (Ford Focus), 77 points

8. Timo Scheider (Ford Fiesta), 67 points

9. Kevin Eriksson (Ford Fiesta), 64 points

10. Timur Timerzianov (Ford Fiesta), 60 points

 

Teams

1. Volkswagen PSRX, 331 points

2. Team Peugeot Hansen, 246 points

3. EKS Audi, 201 points

4. Hoonigan #racing Division, 201 points

5. MJP #racing Team Austria, 142 points

6. STARD, 104 points