Motorsport: Duel for top spot
After the Interlaken slalom, last year's title rivals Martin Bürki and Danny Krieg are tied at the top - and already lurking behind them is Philip Egli, the day's winner of the third championship round. During the event on the airfield of Interlaken, which was hosted by the ACS Bern for the 20th time, in the course of the afternoon [...]
During the event at the airfield of Interlaken, which was hosted by the ACS Bern for the 20th time, dark rain clouds moved in during the afternoon. These only began to clear slowly during the second round of racing cars, so that at least the touring car drivers found optimal conditions on the 4.328 km track twice.
According to the finish line scoreboard, Christian Balmer, who was training for the hill climbs in his Tatuus FM with a revised Honda engine, was the fastest in the first run. But because the local hero had made a gate error, he was subsequently given a ten-second penalty. As a result, Philip Egli in the Dallara-Opel F3 was the leader with a lead of more than three seconds over Bière winner Marcel Maurer in the Tatuus-Renault and Augustin Sanjuan in the Dallara F307. When the rain set in during the second run, that was the end of the matter. Egli underpinned his claim to his second win of the day in Interlaken after 2014 with a time only 1.5 seconds slower on the damp surface. Maurer and Sanjuan occupied the podium places next to him, Balmer dropped out of the classification because he failed to bring his race car into the Closed Park.
Class win for Martin Bürki despite problems
In the touring cars, Danny Krieg lived up to his role as favorite in the Audi A4 STW. As he made a gross mistake in the first run, Manuel Santonastaso was faster in his BMW 320, as he was a week ago in Frauenfeld. In the second heat, everything went right for Krieg, which brought him victory in the touring cars and fifth overall behind Yves Hängärtner in the Tatuus-Renault and Daniel Mauerhofer in the Norma-Honda sports car. Martin Bürki also had to tremble, as massive fuel pressure problems on his VW Polo slowed him down. Nevertheless, it was enough to win the class, which meant that he also scored a full 20 points. Since Jean-François Chariatte did not finish in the top 5 with the 1000cc racing sports car, as he had previously done in Bière and Frauenfeld, he has to relinquish the lead in the standings to the duo of Martin Bürki/Danny Krieg - who were already fighting for the title in 2015 until the final round in Ambri.
www.acs.ch/motorsport
Photos: Ramon Hänggi
