Mountain Championship: First day victory for Robin Faustini 🎥
SHIPPING In the absence of the new champions, Osella rider Robin Faustini secured his first real stage win in the Swiss Mountain Championship this season at the finale in Les Paccot.
Marcel Steiner and Eric Berguerand have dominated the Swiss mountain championship in recent years. Since 2010, the two have fought out the title between themselves. The duo's last defeat in the battle for a stage win came in the rain race on Gurnigel in 2019. At that time, Thomas Amweg won. The two were absent from the 2023 season finale in Les Paccots. As a result, it was clear from the outset that there would have to be a new day winner. And under normal circumstances, this could only come from Ecurie 13 Etoiles - the team of the two Osella riders Robin Faustini (center gallery) and Joël Volluz (left gallery).
With long translation to victory
After the first run, everything looked as if Volluz, who already won the race from Châtel-Saint-Denis to Les Paccots in 2015, would also have the upper hand this time. The man from Valais was 0.4 seconds faster than his opponent from Suhr. Faustini was therefore somewhat pensive after the first run.
But Robin Faustini found a recipe: "We had too long a gear ratio in the first run. We changed that for run 2, and lo and behold, it worked."
The 25-year-old undercut his personal best by two tenths of a second in the second heat. In the third heat, he clocked an almost identical time to the first run, while Volluz was unable to improve in either run.
Lionel Ryter stirs up hopes
Behind Faustini and Volluz, Roger Schnellmann in his Mitsubishi Evo 8 secured third place in the Scratch with two runs in 55.7 and 55.6 seconds respectively. He was thus one second faster in the final standings than Baptiste Tognet-Bruchet on his Norma M20F. Fifth place went to the fastest 2-liter Formula driver Lionel Ryter (gallery on the right), who once again proved in Les Paccots that there is a young driver maturing who can make headlines in the coming years.
The decision for second and third place in the small Monopostos behind Ryter was razor-thin. Victor Darbellay beat Frédéric Fleury by just 78 hundredths of a second in the addition of the two faster runs.
Frédéric Neff is one of the fastest
In the absence of new champion Bruno Sawatzki, the fastest touring cars behind E1 winner Schnellmann included Frédéric Neff from the Jura on his Porsche and Simon Wüthrich from Langnau on his VW Golf Turbiene (winner E1 up to 3000 cm3). For Martin Bürki, the first outing on the BMW M3 GT3 of Jürg Beiner, who died in 2019, ended in third place in E1 plus 3500 cm3 - behind Schnellmann and Neff.
Successful point chasers at a glance
Among the other class winners in Les Paccots were: Stefan Schöpfer (Audi 50, IS up to 1400 cm3), Jannis Jeremias (VW Polo, IS up to 1600 cm3), who secured 2nd place in the IS Trophy (behind Burri and ahead of Sawatzki) with this triumph, Stephan Burri (VW Scirocco, IS up to 2000 cm3), who had already been confirmed as the Berg-Pokal winner, this time relegating Jürg Ochsner (Opel Kadett) and Manuel Santonastaso (BMW E21) to 2nd and 3rd places, Ferdi Waldvogel (BMW M3, IS up to 2500 cm3), Martin Oliver Bürki (BMW E33, IS up to 3000 cm3, middle gallery), Jean-Paul Chiquita (Porsche 997 GT3, IS plus 3000 cm3), Roger Savoy (Suzuki Swift GTi, E1 to 1600 cm3), Sébastien Cocquoz (Opel Kadett GTE, E1 to 2000 cm3), Benoit Farine (Honda CRX, E1 to 2500 cm3), Jérôme Nicolet (Peugeot 308, E1 to 3000 cm3) and Pirmin Scheidegger (Cupra, TCR).
Photos: Eichenberger, myrally.ch
Source Car Sport Switzerland
paccots.ecuriedeslions.ch
