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Bakkerud on Block: "He's a gentle, nice guy!"

Multiple FIA World Rallycross Championship event winner Andreas Bakkerud is spending his first weekend as a Hoonigan Racing Division driver in Portugal, racing the brand new Ford Focus RS RX with team mate Ken Block.

Bakkerud is helping the new full time World Championship team get up to speed in Portugal with knowledge gained in his rallycross career so far.

"For sure I hope I can bring some knowledge here, like when we walked the track and with my experiences through the events I have done before," explained Bakkerud. "For instance, I have been here for maybe five years, so I give as much input as I can to the team. We want to win the Teams' Championship. The more I can give the whole team the more I get back, so it's great."

Block and Bakkerud spend a lot of time getting to know each other in both America and Europe this winter, and started testing the new car as recently as two weeks ago. The Norwegian knows there is a lot to learn for the squad in the first campaign with the Focus, but has high hopes.

"I've been spending a lot of time with Ken and he's a really gentle, nice guy and has been including me in everything, it's all great. I'm really keen to get this season started and do my job. The tests were good, I can still feel the car has lots of potential and that's only a good thing. We just want to have a good event here and more forwards through the season. We have no idea where we are at, whether we have the pace or not - everything feels good at the test but at a race it's very different. Hopefully we can be up there fighting and it would be great to get into the finals," concluded Bakkerud.

Zdroj: fiaworldrallycross.com