Sweden’s Timmy Hansen was second fastest in Q2 at the ninth round of the FIA World Rallycross Championship in Barcelona to end the first day of action as Top Qualifier.

Hansen followed his fastest time in Q1 with second fastest to Sweden’s Mattias Ekstrom in Q2, and was also involved in a last-lap battle with Petter Solberg to be the first Peugeot-Hansen driver to be top on day one this season.

“It’s a great result," said 24-year-old Hansen. "Q1 was my first qualifying win this year and we’ve been chasing them so hard but haven’t quite had the pace when we had the chances to do it,” said Hansen. “So today when I won the start and then crossed the line first; those runs are fantastic to do. This is a big achievement for us, we won that race on pace which is a big boost to the whole team.”

Ekstrom is second at the end of day one, the EKS driver setting fastest time in Q2 with the clear race victory. Norway’s Andreas Bakkerud was consistently quick in both of his day one races and is third overall with Petter Solberg fourth, France’s Sebastien Loeb fifth and Finland’s Topi Heikkinen sixth. Sweden’s Robin Larsson had two-wheeled moment away from the startline in Q1 when he was caught in the first corner squeeze, and had a close race with Janis Baumanis and Loeb in Q2, ending up seventh overnight. Baumanis is two places behind Larsson, the pair sandwiching former European Champion Timur Timerayznov.

In the penultimate round of the FIA European Rallycross Championship, which takes place this weekend in Barcelona, Sweden’s Kevin Hansen was fastest in Q1 and Q2. Denmark’s Ulrik Linnemann leads the Super1600 order at the end of day one, and France’s Cyril Raymond is top of the RX Lites competitors having set three fastest times.

See full results here.