Schäfer tops opening qualifier

Team Shepherd’s Patrick Schäfer has topped the opening round of qualifying at the 200mm European Championships in Ettlingen, Germany outpacing World Championship Top Qualifier Robert Pietsch by 11/1000ths of a second with former back to back champion Dario Balestri third fastest.

The owner of Team Shepherd which is based less than 30 minutes from the track, Schäfer said with rain forecast for tomorrow his target for Q1 was to just run a safe run and he never expected it would produce the fastest time. A clean run, the German said his car, engine and tyres performed perfectly and he had a really good feeling with the whole package.  Confident that his time of 31 laps in 7:11.444 is good enough to put him in the Top 14, and therefore in the all important Semis, Schäfer said he will use today’s second & final qualifier to test an exhaust he is considering using for the finals.

Pietsch, who is not enjoying the incredibly hot conditions on the rostrum, said he ran a shorter gearing on the new MTX-5 which caused him to loose feeling in the acceleration.  A slower track than this morning, the Mugen designer said it was a clean run but he expects this evening to be faster as the temperature should be lower. The German ace said he will revert back to the longer gearing he ran during controlled practice.

Driving for KM Racing Dario Balestri was a lot happier with his car having changed to harder springs all around.  The Italian, who was champion in 2006 & 2007 when he drove for Team Magic, decribed the run as clean but thinks the times will tumble this evening and if the rain holds off feels tomorrow morning will be the ‘rocket’ round.  Setting the fastest time for the round he is not planning any major set-up adjustments for Q2 but will try a different shore of Contact tyres.

Setting the fourth fastest time despite one small mistake, Team Xray’s Eric Dankel said he was at 100% but the super hot conditions just don’t suit the NT1.  Having tried a number of set-up changes in free practice yesterday when it was also very hot he said what they are running now is the best set-up they have and he just hopes the weather will turn cooler.  Xray team-mate Dirk Wischnewski, who set the pace in practice, failed to finish his opening qualifier after he ran out of fuel.  The 2009 Champion said his Orcan engine wasn’t right and ran too rich causing his car to come to a halt with less than 10 seconds of the 7-minute heat remaining.

Local driver Simon Balk, who is competing in his first A Euros, said recording the fifth fastest time was fantastic but in terms of the car it was not so good.  The 20-year-old, who runs the same chassis/engine package as Wischnewski, said the hot temperatures made his car very difficult to drive.

Completing the Top 6 Adrian Berntsen was not happy with his driving feeling he could have been quicker.  The Xray driver said he couldn’t fault the car and he just need to tidy up his driving after making too many small mistakes over the run.  Just missing out on 31 laps, Giuseppe D’Angelo now driving for Xray set the seventh fastest time followed by Capricorn driver and fellow Italian Giorgio De Felici.

Elsewhere Biagio Spataro and Jilles Groskamp who both featured strongly in this morning’s controlled practice had a troubled first qualifier. Spataro rolled his Gi-Mar powered Xray when he had a back marker turn in on him while Groskamp had his Orion go off tune and pushing hard to make up for the lack of low end power also rolled his Shepherd.

Top 14 after Q1
1. Patrick Schäfer – Shepherd – 31/7:11.444
2. Robert Pietsch – Mugen – 31/7:11.455
3. Dario Balestri – KM Racing – 31/7:12.297
4. Eric Dankel – Xray – 31/7:12.643
5. Simon Balk – Xray – 31/7:13.003
6. Adrian Berntsen – Xray – 31/7:13.429
7. Giuseppe D’Angelo – Xray – 30/7:00.411
8. Giorgio De Felici – Capricorn – 30/7:00.610
9. Rico Kröber – Xray – 30/7:01.504
10.Mark Green – Serpent – 30/7:02.086
11.Teemu Leino – Xray – 30/7:02.558
12.Alexander Hagberg – Xray – 30/7:02.830
13.Patrick Nähr – Shepherd – 30/7:02.981
14.Manuel Huber – Xray – 30/7:04.701

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