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Timerzyanov second as Citroën trio battle in Austria

Timur Timerzyanov delivered a fighting drive to second place in the eighth round of the FIA European Rallycross Championship at Greinbach in Austria, the Russian driver strengthening his grip on second place in the title race. While Timerzyanov made his way to the podium his Kenneth Hansen Motorsport Citroën team mates Liam Doran (ninth) and Johan Larsson (seventh in Super1600) also scored championship points.

Timerzyanov made his way to the Supercar A final having won the B final. Ninth in the first heat on Saturday afternoon, Timerzyanov was fourth and fifth fastest in Sunday's remaining heats. "I had a problem with the sensor for the engine temperature in the third heat and that meant it went into a kind of 'safe' mode. The car lost about 60bhp so it was very different to drive but actually it taught me something new, different lines to keep up the speed and I used that again in the B final," explained Timerzyanov who earned his A final start with the race victory. In the A final, Timerzyanov again delivered a fine drive, battling his way up to second place. "When I was in the A final I knew the worst that could happen was sixth place so I went for it. The track was quite bumpy but I still had the fastest lap time and except for a mistake in the third lap I would have been closer to the winner," he said.

Like his team mate, Doran also had leading pace, but his event was seriously compromised after an incident in the first heat left him out of the race. "It shows how quickly things change in this sport and how difficult it is to get back into the event, specially on a track like this, I was never able to make up for what I lost, or what was taken from me, on Saturday," said Doran, "We were right there in the warm-up on Sunday morning, but the track here changes a lot as the heat progresses and in the second heat the lap times were a second off what we'd done in the warm-up: when there's no grip there is nothing you can do except driver more slowly."
Ending the qualifying heats in 11th place, Doran won the C final and progressed to the B final. "From the back of the grid I knew there was only one thing to do - try the outside line in the first corner and see what happens," said Doran who ran alongside the leaders entering the turn but then got eased out, "I was nearly there and if had worked I know I could have won the race because my lap times were the same or better than Timur's all weekend. But, as usual, there was a little push and I lost time by getting out onto the grass. To be honest I lost interested a bit then and decided to entertain the crowd a bit - I think I have some new fans!" said Doran.

Larsson was also in fight back mode on Sunday after his Super1600 Citroën C2 suffered handling problems on Saturday. "We tried some new things in the car here and not everything worked. Most of all we had problems with the anti-roll bar on Saturday so we worked hard overnight to change the setup in the car and everything was much better on Sunday," said Larsson who, for the first time this year, was fastest in a heat. "The third heat was good, almost perfect and we had fastest time there, it was just a little bit too late and without the problems in the first day I think I could have been in the A final. But it's looking good for third place in the championship and I'm concentrating on that now," he said.

All three drivers are looking forward to next weekend's ninth round of the championship at the Slomczyn circuit just south of Warsaw in Poland. Doran won the Polish event last year and Timerzyanov has also won on the track, "I like the track in Poland a lot, there is not much grip but I like that so I know it will be a good event for me there too," said Timerzyanov.

Hansen Motorsport

Supercar
1 Sverre Isachsen (N)
2 Timur Timerzyanov (RUS)
3 Tanner Foust (USA)
4 Stig-Olov Walfridson (S)
5 Frode Holte (N)
6 Davy Jeanney (F)

9 Liam Doran (GB)

Championship
1 Isachsen104
2 Timerzyanov 97
3 Foust 86
4 Holte 79
5 Lysen 77
6 Heikkinen 74
7 Doran 73

Super1600
1 Krzysztof Skorupski (PL)
2 Jaroslav Kalny (CZ)
3 Vadim Makarov (RUS)
4 Clemens Meyer (D)
5 Ulrik Linnemann (DK)
6 Christian Petrakovits (A)
7 Johan Larsson (S)

Championship
1 Andreas Bakkerud (N) 117
2 Linnemann 98
3 Larsson 71
4 Meyer 71
5 Skorupski 59
6 David Johansson (S) 58

Next race, Slomczyn, Poland, September 9-11