Motorsport: Duel of the strongest foreigners
Only 19 drivers have entered the list of daily winners in the last 50 editions of the St-Ursanne-Les Rangiers hill climb. The Swiss have a tough time against the strongest foreigners. Italian Simone Faggioli is undefeated since 2012 on the fastest mountain race track in Europe (he holds the record with 180.47 km/h!). The last Swiss winner was Marcel [...]
Italian Simone Faggioli has been unbeaten since 2012 on the fastest hillclimb circuit in Europe (he holds the record with 180.47 km/h!). The last Swiss winner was Marcel Steiner in 2010 and 2011, although his first triumph was overshadowed by the death of Lionel Régal, and the following year the best foreigners were absent. Thanks to the increased security, they have returned, making this event once again a worthy European Championship race.
While Saturday (3 practice runs) is expected to be wet, the weather is expected to improve on Sunday. So nothing should stand in the way of the duel between Simone Faggioli and Christian Merli, because in the wet the European champion has the advantage thanks to the Pirelli development tires. For this reason, Merli also suffered his only defeat of the season in the race cars against Faggioli's teammate Paride Macario, who is competing in St-Ursanne for the first time. Faggioli himself is unbeaten in the sports cars, and even Marcel Steiner with the LobArt, which is still underdeveloped, can't normally change that.
Nor will Joël Volluz seriously intervene in the fight for the day's victory. For him, the focus is on the Berg-SM, in which he is the sole favorite due to the absence of Eric Berguerand (never drives here again since the serious accident in 2007) and can take over the top spot in the standings with the full number of points. With seven three-liter cars and 30 (!) two-liter cars, the race car category is excellently filled. A curiosity is the classification of David Hauser. Since his GP2-Dallara with a four-liter V8 engine is only eligible for the Luxembourg Championship, he has to start after the national fields of the Swiss and before the FIA classes.
Does Reto Meisel break the two-minute barrier?
It will be interesting to see the times of Reto Meisel in the Mercedes SLK 340. The man from Aargau has held the E1 record since 2007 in 2'00,07. He is likely to be the first touring car driver ever to come well under the two-minute mark and this despite the lengthening of the track by 11 m to now 5080 m. Should it stay wet, FIA Mountain Cup winner Ronnie Bratschi in a Mitsubishi is the favorite. For the first time Bruno Ianniello with the Lancia Delta S4 2016 comes to a mountain race. A Swiss premiere is also the start of Martin Bürki in the newly acquired BMW 318i, who could inflict the first defeat on Danny Krieg in the Audi A4 in the E1 two-liters.
www.rangiers.ch
Photos: Peter Wyss, Archive
