Hill climb: Good practice for Volluz & Bratschi 🎥
WINS IN FRANCE Joël Volluz and Ronnie Bratschi's start to the season went well in cold, wet conditions in France. At the European Championship race in Austria, however, the two Swiss drivers were eliminated. At the French mountain championship race Abreschviller-Saint Quirin in Lorraine, the organizers announced a separate classification for the Luxembourgers and Swiss. In three practice runs and four race rounds they came [...]
At the French mountain championship race Abreschviller-Saint Quirin in Lorraine, the organizers announced a separate classification for the Luxembourgers and Swiss. In three practice runs and four race rounds, they got to drive extensively on the 2100-meter short track like the French, but in changing and predominantly wet and cold conditions.
Volluz alone on a wide field
The onboard video of a training drive by Joël Volluz in the Osella FA30 shows that things were moving fast nonetheless:
https://www.facebook.com/1473332169656624/videos/2036595023310237
As the only driver with a large race car, the Valais native won the foreigner category in superior fashion. While the fastest running time counted here, the two fastest times were added together for the French. Because of the always different conditions, the two classifications are therefore difficult to compare. Volluz, however, would probably have been good for second or third place overall. The day's win by Geoffrey Schatz in the Norma M20 FC with Oreca turbo engine was undisputed.
Bratschi fastest touring car driver
Second place and E1 victory in the Luxembourg classification went to Ronnie Bratschi in his Mitsubishi. With 58.553 as the fastest running time, the man from Uri was only 3.090 seconds slower than Volluz and 42 thousandths faster than Nicolas Werver with his Porsche 997 GT2 in the FFSA field.
Ronnie Bratschi: "It wasn't just about the result. The important thing was that everything worked well. It was good to race in the wet again after I only had to fit the rain tires for one run in 16 races last year."
Henri Schmidt was the second fastest E2 driver in the Formula Renault Caparo. Fabien Houlmann (Peugeot 205), Ludovic Monnier (VW Golf) and Benoit Farine (Honda CRX) only had to give way to the Luxembourg champion Canio Marchione in the BMW 320 STW.
Because he is entered in the French hillclimb championship, Frédéric Neff started in the main field. In the process, the 2017 and 2018 Swiss touring car champion finished fourth in Group GTTS in his Porsche 996 GT3 R behind Werver, Pierre Courroye in the McLaren MP4 12C, who was beaten for the first time, and Yannick Poinsignon in the BMW M3 E92. The French trio ranked among the racing sports cars in the top 12.
Record drive by Merli at the Rechberg race
At the second European Mountain Championship round in Austria, the spectators, who had come in large numbers despite the uncertain weather conditions - but it remained dry on both days - witnessed another great duel between Christian Merli and Simone Faggioli. In practice as in the race, European champion Merli in the Osella FA30 kept the upper hand over his predecessor in the Norma sports car. The South Tyrolean set a new fantastic track record, as he had done two weeks earlier at Col Saint Pierre (F).
French mountain champion Sébastien Petit (Norma-Mugen), who did not start in his home country but in Styria, finished third overall in the addition of the two times, well behind the Italians.
Christoph Lampert, who the Swiss know from his starts in Oberhallau and at Gurnigel (third overall in 2018), was the fastest Austrian, missing the podium by just half a second. The Vorarlberg driver relegated Italian Diego De Gasperi in another Osella FA30 to fifth place by 1.2 seconds.
No result for Bouduban and Meisel
The two Swiss drivers were left empty-handed. Fabien Bouduban in the second Norma from Team Faggioli retired in the second run after the Jura native had previously been twelfth fastest. For inexplicable reasons, he lightly touched the chicane consisting of tires, whereupon Bouduban parked the sports car with suspected damage.
Reto Meisel set the twelfth-fastest time on the track on Saturday with his Mercedes SLK340, which put the man from Aargau at the top of the rankings in the strong E2-SH group. However, the later E1 winner Karl Schagerl with his all-wheel drive VW Golf TSFI was clearly faster in all three test runs.
In the race, the Austrian drove to seventh place overall in a new touring car record time. Where Meisel would have ended up is a matter of speculation: He had to forgo the start on Sunday due to problems with the clutch and had to return home without having achieved anything.
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