Greiner fends off Mazzeo challenge to win ENS Germany
Dominic Greiner has won Round 2 of the Infinity Euro Nitro Series in Germany. The championship’s fourth year to visit the challenging Minidrom Ettlingen, the Serpent driver became the race’s fourth different winner after seeing off a determined challenge from the Xray of Alessio Mazzeo. Initially it was Top Qualifier Jilles Groskamp who lead the way but gambling on a longer 5-minute refuelling strategy, the Round 1 winner got caught short and flamed out on his way in for his second stop. Holding Mazzeo at bay, Greiner’s super fast tyre stop would give him the breathing space he needed to secure his 4th ENS career win. The German was also helped by the fact Mazzeo was refuelling shortest of the leaders which meant he had to do two extra stops compared to his rivals. With Groskamp opting to change just his outside tyres, he struggled after the stop resulting in a big off which played into the hands of last year’s winner Eric Dankel who would take the final podium position ahead of the Infinity driver who leaves Germany still leading the championship.
‘Given how the weekend started out this is the perfect result’, was Greiner’s reaction to the win that makes him the championship most winning 1:10 driver. The World Champion continued, ‘this is not the track for our car and we had to find a big compromise. Alessio was faster in the final and I had to keep the door closed for a long time. He drove a fair race and I have to thank him for that’. Asked the key to his win, he replied, ‘my amazing pit crew. My tyre stop was I think 4 or 5 seconds faster than the others and the gap it gave me let me control the race and keep cool a bit. Jilles went with a 5-minute strategy and it did not pay off which was good for me’. He added, ‘there was huge tyre wear today. I think my set-up is why I had so much. Jilles was able to make it with only 2 tyre change’. He concluded, ‘this was going to be our most difficult race, and its a perfect result, and for sure we will be better for the next race’.
‘The best 15-minutes of my racing career’ was how Mazzeo summed up his battle with former team-mate Greiner. The Italian said, ‘Congrats to Dominic on keeping a calm mind. I pushed hard, too much, and he did a good job defending his position. It was a very nice clean race for me’. Top Qualifier at the season opener but having an engine issue in the final, he continued, ‘I happy everything work and we sorted the engine problem we had in Holland. I thank all my team for a good job’. On his strategy he said, ‘In the tyre change I lost contact with Dominic and I also had 2 extra (fuel) stops. Today we were a little faster but that’s racing’.
Dankel summed up his racing by saying, ‘at least we improved our position’, the Mugen driver starting 5th on the grid. The 2015 champion continued, ‘It was a difficult race. We made the wrong strategy changing all four tyres when you see Jilles could do it with just 2. Changing four instead of 2 was costly’. On the race itself the German said, ‘After the start I was stuck behind Teemu (Leino). I couldn’t pass him and the Top 3 pulled away. It was impossible to pull back that gap’.
Groskamp said, ‘What can I say, we went out with a risky strategy’. The Dutch ace continued, ‘In the end we couldn’t make 5-minutes. We had a flame out on the second stop and lost 10-seconds. Then we changed tyres only on one side, after the car was terrible which caused me to fly off the track. The tyre wear was much higher today. Mazzeo and Dominic had a better strategy. In the end we made it but the pace wasn’t there’. Behind Groskamp, Thilo Tödtmann made it five different brands of cars in the Top 5 with former Ettlingen winner Dirk Wischnewski coming home 6th.
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