Cookie Consent by Free Privacy Policy website The Peugeot 208 WRX 2017 bags fifth place on Barcelona debut
aprile 03, 2017 - Peugeot

The Peugeot 208 WRX 2017 bags fifth place on Barcelona debut

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The opening round of the 2017 FIA WorldRX Championship at #barcelona, Spain, saw the PEUGEOT #208wrx 2017 reveal real potential for the fiercely-competitive campaign ahead.

• Saturday’s qualifying was troubled by rain, but #timmyhansen overcame the adverse conditions to reach the final which saw him matchthe pace of his rivals. With overtaking never easy at #barcelona, he crossed thefinish line in fifth place to get Team Peugeot Hansen’s 2017 campaign off to anoptimistic start ahead of what promises to be an extremely competitive year as Audiand Volkswagen join Ford and Peugeot in the WorldRX.

• Sébastien Loeb had a less successful start to his secondfull season in the WorldRX Championship when an error during the assembly of hiscar’s front-left transmission scuppered his chances of reaching the final.

• Kevin Hansen celebrated his first outing as afull-fledged member of Team Peugeot Hansen WorldRX’s line-up with a strong, consistentweekend. Driving a 2016-specification PEUGEOT #208wrx, he was frequently amatch for the championship’s pacesetters competing in 2017-spec cars and his rewardwas a place in the semi-finals.

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KennethHansen (Team Principal)

“First of all, it’s great to be competing again. Thelevel is very high this year and you really need a car at the peak of itspotential, driven to its limits by top drivers if you want to be a part of thefight. In terms of outright pace, the weekend demonstrated that the PEUGEOT #208wrx is up there with the very best. Unfortunately, a transmission-related issueprevented Sébastien from making it through to the semi-finals.”

SébastienLoeb (PEUGEOT #208wrx 9)

“It wasn’t the best of starts to the year for me. I hada small problem during Q3 which was a crucial heat after Saturday’s poorweather. The track was in a good state but I was unable to reach the finishafter a drive shaft popped out. I ended up last in Q3 and I was first to run inQ4 when the dusty surface prevented me from reaching the semi-finals. It wasvery frustrating. The car feels good but we are up against some strongopposition.”

TimmyHansen (PEUGEOT #208wrx 21)

“It was interesting to see everyone’s speed at last. Ourrivals are clearly fast but, from what we saw in the semi-finals and the final, I feel we have the speed, even though the way the weekend unfolded didn’talways permit us to make the very most of our car’s potential. I never found ita problem to keep up with the others, though, so we have good potential. I feeloptimistic, even though we were a little down on luck this weekend, but I’msure that’s going to change.” KevinHansen (PEUGEOT #208wrx 71) “It felt like a pretty good weekend in terms of my paceand I like to think I have settled into the team okay. I feel my dialogue withthe engineers was good but it was a weekend of ups and downs. I was a littlelucky in Q2, but less so at other times. I don’t think Ireally managed to show my full potential. I was in sixth position for the startof my semi-final, so I had to find a way to move up the order. I attempted amove but it didn’t work out.”