Pietsch tops opening ENS qualifier in Austria
Robert Pietsch set the pace in the opening round of qualifying at Race 2 of the the Euro Nitro Series in Austria this morning, the Mugen driver topping the 4-minute qualifier ahead of Shepherd’s Jilles Groskamp. The only drivers to record 14 laps of the Stöhr-Ring track, the pair were separated by just 3/10ths with Capricorn’s Eric Dankel the fastest driver on 13 laps in third. Pietsch would make it the perfect morning by also topping the times in 1:8 from Serpent’s Toni Gruber with the Xray of former European Champion Jernej Vuga completing the Top 3.
Continuning where he left off yesterday when he set the pace in practice, Pietsch was happy to take Q1 but said nerves played a part in some less than perfect laps at the beginnng of the run. Very happy with how his Novarossi powered MTX-5 is working he said for Q2 the plan is just to fit a fresh set of the handout Contact tyres and improve his driving, something he said should be no problem now that the first qualifier is out of the way. On his 1:8 performance in which he was over 5-seconds faster than his closest rival, the World Champion said the track really suits his driving style and with no tyre additive he is also able to steer his MRX-5R from the rear adding he is really enjoying driving the car here this weekend.
Groskamp said he was ‘quite surprised’ by how close he got to Pietsch pointing out that he just needed to find 2/100th per lap to match the German. Admitting that while he doesn’t have the fastest car the Electric Touring Car World Champion said he is able to compensate somewhat for this by his consistency. His first tyre additive free race since returning to Shepherd he said everything in terms of set-up is different and to learn the new car he will make just one single change to the set-up, running new tyres each time, to see what effects the change has. His first 200mm race since last year’s World Championships, he said this weekend is all about building up as much data as possible for the European Championships.
Dankel was ‘not happy’ with his run after he made two mistakes, the first of which was on the opening lap and which cost him a 14 lap run. The ENS Race 1 winner said it was simply bad driving on his behalf as changes to the car since practice have given him the steering he was looking for. Describing his Novarossi powered LAB-C02 as really good he said he will make one small adjustment for Q2 and lower the rear roll centres. Team-mate Francesco Tironi took his car to the 8th fastest time splitting the Shepherds of Patrick Nahr and Patrick Schafer. Running a radio plate that gave the car more flex he said it was the wrong choice and he will revert to the standard one for Q2. Also distracted by a mosquito that landed on his glasses during the run, the Italian said while he may not have the pace to match Pietsch he is sure he can be much more competitive than he has been so far. The World Championship podium finisher is still trying to get to terms with the points system used in the ENS as he normally only needs just one good run to qualify well rather than the three required using this system and he needs to be more mindful of this.
Serpent’s Dominic Greiner was reasonably happy with his run to the fourth fastest time but thinks there is plenty of room for improvement. Changing the gearing on his Picco powered 747 for the first qualifier, the German said it was too short and he lost time on the straight as a result. The 21-year-old Euro B Championship runner-up also drove ‘too safe’ and for Q2 with the right gearing fitted the plan is to ‘push harder’.
Behind Greiner Dirk Wischnewski was the fastest of the Xray drivers setting the fifth fastest time just ahead of his team-mate Alexander Hagberg. Clearly not happy with his performance the former European Champion said his Novarossi powered NT1 was not much better than yesterday. Suffering a ‘lack of overall traction’, he said they will try running a heavier shock oil in Q2 and just take a single step by step approach to trying to improve the car and hopefully end up with something that allows them to be competitive come the final. Hagberg was pretty happy with the performance of his NT1 but was hampered by a clutch that went loose during the run.
For KM Racing’s Adrien Bertin it was not a good start to the day. The former World Champion crashed heavily in the warm-up resulting in a broken connector on his battery lead. Missing the start of the run while they fixed the lead, when the Frenchman did get up and running it was discovered that the crash had also broken the front bumper which was rubbing the ground. The Orion engine guru said he got the feeling the crash on the straight may have also tweaked the HK-1 and so they will fully rebuld the car for Q2 as a precaution.
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