Rechberg: Strong performance by Marcel Steiner
GOOD START TO THE SEASON Only the Italian pros Christian Merli and Simone Faggioli were faster than Swiss champion Marcel Steiner at the Int. Rechbergrennen in Austria. On the other hand Joel Burgermeister had to postpone his debut with PRC. The Austrian Grand Prix in Rechberg north of Graz counted as the second round of the 2018 European Mountain Championship and attracted many top drivers to [...]
The Austrian Grand Prix in Rechberg north of Graz counted as the second round of the 2018 European Mountain Championship and attracted many top riders to Styria. With Christian Merli and Simone Faggioli, the two Italians who always dominate were at the start, as were French mountain champion Sébastien Petit and Swiss champion Marcel Steiner.
The French champion beats the EM favorites
At the European Championship opener on April 15 in his home country (Col St-Pierr)e, Petit had surprisingly beaten the Italian pros in the overall classification. In the first run, Faggioli was the best in a new record time, in the second Merli set another mark that was 16 thousandths better.
Because the European champion hit a bale of straw in the second run and damaged the front of his Norma-Zytek, he slipped to third place. Merli, for his part, struggled with the handling of his Osella FA30 in the first run. As a result, the Frenchman was ahead in the end.
Marcel Steiner: "When I saw the start list for Rechberg, I knew that it would be difficult to finish on the podium right away at my first start of the season. But I set myself the goal of doing so. Therefore, my goal was to at least beat Petit."
When, after the three practice runs, the Czech Dusan Neveril on a Norma sports car like the one Petit drives was also ahead of Steiner in the LobArt-Mugen, while Merli set clear best time ahead of Faggioli, the task for Steiner seemed even more difficult.
Victory and lead in the standings for Merli, satisfaction for Steiner
But the four-time Swiss champion kept his nerve and was the only rider besides the two Italians to complete two runs of 5.05 km under two minutes. He was thus able to enjoy third place, as he last did in 2017 at the Swiss European Championship race St-Ursanne-Les Rangiers.
Marcel Steiner: "After practice, I didn't quite know where the journey would lead. We even modified the chassis on Saturday evening. So I'm satisfied with the result, but only to a limited extent with the times. I was faster with the Osella FA30 years ago, but it was probably too warm, because Merli and Faggioli didn't reach their previous record times either."
As in the two previous years, the day's victory went to Christian Merli, this time with an astonishingly large lead of 6.59 seconds over ten-time European champion Faggioli. This means that for the first time in his career the South Tyrolean is leading the European Championship standings alone, as Faggioli had only finished second behind Petit in the sports cars in France.
Steiner aims for fifth SM title, Lampert makes great progress
Before he tackles the defense of his title in Switzerland (the season starts on June 9/10 in Hemberg), Steiner will contest the Eschdorf hill climb in Luxembourg on May 5/6 like some other Swiss (Berguerand, Faustini, Hugentobler) and probably the European Championship round of the Czech Republic on June 2-3 in Ecce Homo. His clear goal is the fifth SM title.
Christoph Lampert, who is well known and already successful in Switzerland, also put in an impressive performance. The Vorarlberg native also came in under two minutes in the second run and was only half a second slower than Steiner with the newly acquired Osella FA30 (once piloted by Geneva's Julien Ducommun). The addition of the two times resulted in fourth place for Lampert, ahead of Petit, the Italian Degasperi on an identical Osella and Neveril.
Burgermeister must wait for first use
Unfortunately Joel Burgermeister had to cancel the planned premiere with the new PRC Honda 2.0 at Rechberg due to technical problems. The first test drive is now scheduled to take place on May 1. His disappointment is great, but the Thurgau native sees the whole thing realistically.
Joel Burgermeister: Of course I was a bit disappointed. But we want to make sure that I feel comfortable in the car and that we don't take any risks. I want to start top prepared and then bring results."
His first start is now scheduled for June 9-10 at the Glasbach race in East Germany.
