Pietsch on pole in Ettlingen

Mugen’s Robert Pietsch will start on pole position for this evening’s 200m European Championship final in Ettlingen, Germany after he dominated his Semi Final in which he lapped the entire field.  The winner of the other Semi Final Dirk Wischnewski will line up second followed by Eric Dankel and 5 more Xrays in a grid that sees a total of 8 of the Slovakian cars represented along with just one car each from Mugen and KM Racing.  Having secured the honour of Top Qualifier with Mugen’s new MTX-5, Pietsch said he drove a safe Semi and there were no problems adding he was very happy with his tyre wear after the 20-minutes.

Both of the 20 minute semi Finals saw drivers call for a 10-minute delay. In the Semi B it was former Worlds Top Qualifier Jilles Groskamp who called time as his team made a last minute decision to change to a different Orion engine. As a result of making the call the Team Shepherd driver was forced to start 11th on the grid but worked his was up to a bump position only to loose second gear on his Velox V10 a third of the way into the race.  Groskamp’s team boss Patrick Schäfer, who looked extremely fast, also saw his chances of a bump go when he suffered a plug failure.  The German team were to suffer further bad luck in the second Semi when Ronald Volker was running competitively in the top 4 only to have his car go out of control shortly after his first fuel stop.  The electric touring car ace rejoined but was too far back to recover and finished last.

Dirk Wischnewski looked to have the first Semi under control until he ran wide at the end of the main straight and rolled his Xray across the grass dropping him to sixth.  Working his way back to the front the 2009 German Champion had another moment when his car was hit in the pitlane after his mechanic put the car out into the path of another car.  The error resulted in a Stop & Go penalty but the German keep his head and went on to win by a lap from fellow countryman Rico Kröber and Italian duo Biagio Spataro and Dario Balestri. Unfortunately for Simon Balk who led for much of the race his tyres didn’t last the distance and he finished fifth missing out on bumping up as Adrian Bernsten and former Euro B Champion Top Qualifier Michael Derderian got in as the fastest two finishers outside the Top 4 of each Semi.

The Semi A Final got delayed when Norwegian ace Bernsten called time as he struggled to get his engine to run. Fitting a new plug to the Capricorn motor they got it back on song and the Xray driver was to reward his pit crew with a stunning drive from the back of the field. If starting from the 11th grid spot wasn’t a big enough challenge the 17-year-old put his Xray on the grass on the opening lap and needed to be marshalled. Getting his head down Bernsten said ‘he never gave up hope and drove at 110%’ and it was to pay of as he worked his way up through to finish 5th which sees him line up 6th for the main event.  Up front it was Eric Dankel who got the jump on pole sitter Pietsch at the start but the German National Champion clipped the end of the pit wall on lap six which allowed the 1:8 World Champion into a lead he would never give up.

A-main starting order
1. Robert Pietsch (Mugen/Novarossi)
2. Dirk Wischnewski (Xray/Orcan)
3. Eric Dankel (Xray/Novarossi)
4. Manuel Huber (Xray/Max)
5. Teemu Leino (Xray/LRP)
6. Adrian Berntsen (Xray/Capricorn)
7. Michael Derderian (Xray/RB)
8. Rico Kröber (Xray/Novarossi)
9. Biagio Spataro (Xray/Gi-Mar)
10.Dario Balestri (KM/Novarossi)

View the full event results here.

View our event image gallery here.