Spielberg: Two clear Swiss winners
FORMULA 3/CLIO CLASSIC Sandro Zeller celebrated two victories in the strongly contested Formula 3 at the Red Bull Ring. In the Swiss Clio Classic Cup, Denis Wolf was lonely but battled with more powerful opponents. Sandro Zeller truly could not complain about a lack of competition in Formula 3. The two races in the [...]
Sandro Zeller truly could not complain about a lack of competition in Formula 3. The two races in the Leeb Circuit Trophy at the Red Bull Ring in Spielberg not only counted towards the AFR Remus trophies, but also the FIA Zone Championship and the Italian F2 Trophy.
That's why there were so many Eastern Europeans and Italians on the grid. Accordingly, the Zurich driver, who started from second place on both occasions, had to fight hard for his third and fourth wins of the season (after the two at Hockenheim).
In the first race, Italian Alessandro Bracalente on a Dallara F312-VW in the E2-2000 class led until the last lap, before Zeller in his original and older Dallara F306-VW left him behind after a spectacular overtaking maneuver.
Sandro Zeller: "It wasn't easy today, especially since we kept getting slowed down when running into the slower cars."
Winner in all classifications
In the second race, the Swiss immediately took the lead ahead of the Italians Bracalente and Cola. Finally, he also kept the upper hand in this slipstream duel over 17 laps.
The defending champion thus won all the competitions, including the Remus Cup and the Swiss Formula 3 Cup supported by Horag Hotz Racing.
The latter, however, was no mean feat. Marcel Tobler in the Dallara F308-Mercedes, also driven by Jo Zeller Racing, had to fight his way from 17th on the grid through the front midfield in the first race. As a result, he finished fourth in the Remus standings and sixth overall.
In the second race, the man from Thurgau finished fifth, as in practice. Third-best Swiss in both races was Antonino Pellegrino in a Dallara F308-VW with 16th and 7th overall.
Eleven Clio drivers in Interlaken, but only three in Spielberg
While there were still six drivers in Hockenheim, only three competed in the two circuit races that count towards the Clio Classic Cup in Austria. In between, the Interlaken slalom counted towards the championship.
Denis Wolf won there ahead of Thomas Zürcher and Philip Krebs. Hockenheim double winner Zürcher competed in Interlaken for the last time with the ex-Henggeler Clio, and Krebs, like many other club colleagues, prefers to start in the upcoming hill climbs and the Romont slalom.
Nevertheless, Wolf was not lonely with his Renault Clio III. The Bernese duelled with several not particularly fast drivers in actually faster Clio IVs (with 1600cc turbo engines), several of whom he left behind in both races.
Two second places for Johanna Amann
Only Johanna Amann and Angelo Figus also traveled to Styria and were rewarded with two podium finishes each. The Vorarlberg racer managed to keep Figus just behind her in both runs. She was already third once in Hockenheim.
Denis Wolf is now also lonely at the top of the 2018 Clio Classic Cup standings, which he clearly leads with 132 points ahead of Zürcher (79) and Amann (59). The Bernese should therefore no longer have any great difficulty in successfully defending the title.
On the other hand, people like Krebs, Schnidrig (4th in Interlaken) and Zbinden, who so far have only competed in the Interlaken slalom, will certainly work their way up in the second half of the season. Wanna bet?
