Hagberg wins A1
Alexander Hagberg took an easy win in the opening A-Main at the Yokomo Euro Touring Series this morning in Germany, a first lap error from Top Qualifier Bruno Coelho handing the Swede an unassailable lead. Behind the Xray driver, Marc Rheinard would survive a first lap error of his own, out of which Ronald Volker came off worst, to finish second. Starting 6th on the grid, Akio Sobue would complete the Top 3, the Tamiya driver seeing off Viljami Kutvonen and the recovering Yokomos of Volker and Yannic Prümper.
‘Obviously I got lucky Bruno rolled but it was a very good race for me’ was Hagberg’s reaction to his win. Finishing 1.8-seconds clear of Rheinard, the 2014 event winner said ‘the traction was different (to qualifying)’ but with his ORCA powered T4 having ‘less steering’. Expecting higher traction for A2, the Snowbirds Champion said it was ‘not necessary to change’ his set-up’ adding the car was still ‘very easy to drive’. Summing up the mistake that left him last at the end of the first lap, Coelho said, ‘I hit the curb and it flipped the car. I had no chance (to recover) from 10th’. Finishing 8th, the Portuguese ace said it was just a driver error as his Hobbywing powered T4 was still really good as highlighted by him putting in the fastest lap of the race.
‘A tough final’ was Rheinard’s view of A1. Starting 3rd on the grid, last year’s race winner having twice rolled his TRF419 in the warm-up knew it was going to be a tricky race and only three corners after the start he hit the barrier bouncing out into the path of Volker. The German said, ‘it wasn’t my intention to block Ronald. I got lucky not to come off worse. Running third after Coelho’s mistake, the championship leader would survive a second incident, this time with Volker’s team-mate Prümper. Battling for second, a mistake by the Yokomo driver would lead to contact between the pair with both having different views of the incident. Rheinard said after Prümper had a bobble at the previous corner they were side by side with him on the outside for the left hand corner onto the main straight and for him it was a ‘normal racing incident’ adding ‘if I thought I was to blame I would have waited’. Prumper’s view was that while he did make a mistake he still held his line and the body tuck he suffered was proof that Rheinard hit him from the rear adding ‘for me it was not (a) fair (pass)’.
Summing up his mood after the race Volker said, ‘Things didn’t go well yesterday and today it seems luck is also going against us’. The reigning champion added ‘Marc hit the barrier and landed in front of me collecting my car, there was nothing I could do but there was nothing Marc could do either. It wasn’t intentional’. With only Coelho putting in a faster lap time, Volker said set-up changes after the final qualifier had result in the car being ‘the best it has been all weekend’ and he feels ‘definitely more is possible in A2’.
In the Serpent Formula final while Top Qualifier Jan Rathiesky took the win as if he was out for a Sunday drive, behind him was the most entertaining battle of the first round of all the A-Mains. With a certain Masami Hirosaka meaning there was no standing room around the track, when the 14-time World Champion made a pass the hall errupted. Having a great battle with Francesco Martini for second, unfortunately with three laps to go contact would drop the Yokomo driver to fifth leaving Martini to finish 2nd ahead of the CRC of former Champion Hebert Weber. Unfortunately for No.2 starter David Ehrbar, the Serpent driver would retire from the second place battle after just 6-laps.
The Xray Pro Stock class would see Top Qualifier Tony Streit take a tone to tone win over Ratheisky. Behind them the big battle of the race was for third which Mike Gosvig held for 17 of the 20 laps before Helge Johannessen went through for 2-laps, but contact with Maxim Laverychev allowed Bernhard Bopp to slip through to complete the Top 3. Starting 9th on the grid, reigning champion Marek Cerny would finish 6th.
View complete event results here.
View the event image gallery here.
