World Champions top practice at Hockenheim

Practice for the second running of the European Nitro Challenge has been completed at the Hockeneimring in Germany with World Champions laying early claim on the event with current 1:8 World Champion Robert Pietsch quickest of the 1:8 runners and former 1:10 World Champion Daniele Ielasi fastest in the 200mm touring car class. Having originally scheduled 6 timed practice runs race organisers added at seventh round in which both drivers produced their fastest three consecutive laps to become top seeds for qualifying tomorrow.

Pietsch, who was Top Qualifier at last year’s inaugural running of the event, was pleased to finish the day with his fastest time but added he still needs to work on his set-up to make his MRX 5 easier to drive. Not a typical European style track, he said having a well balanced car is very important on this track as an aggressive car can cause the car to twitch on the painted curbing causing it to hit one of the dots inside of the curbs which end up flipping the car. The man responsible for designing the MRX 5 Pietsch will adjust the ackermann for tomorrow morning’s Q1.

Making progress every run, factory Shepherd driver Oliver Mack ended the day second fastest with his P7 time. Having only made minor changes to his Picco engined Velox V8 the German said he is very happy with how the day went and he believes he is in good shape for qualifying. Shepherd team-mate Marco Muller was also very happy with his final run as he posted the fifth fastest time. The Swiss National Champion was struggling with a lack of rear traction on his Max powered chassis but having pared the rims of his rear tyres for the final practice he said the extra flex transformed the handling and with that problem solved he can look forward to the rest of the event.

Unable to better his time from P2 yesterday, Alberto Picco said he tried many set-up changes today with most of them making his modified Mugen worse. Planning to run the set-up he used yesterday but with a softer spring, the Italian said the track makes you make the choice of a set-up that is fast or one that is safe as the curbs are the key to success around the American style track. Ending practice 3rd fastest the multiple World and European finalist said he is about 10-15% away from the safe set-up he wants but still has a few things he wants to try to help him achieve the safe set-up he is after.

Unable to improve on his P4, which put him 3rd fastest at the time, 21-year-old Philip Eberle struggled to get his Xceed engined Serpent 966 to turn in. Having to break much earlier than his rivals to get the car to turn in for the corners, he said he tried a number of changes but to no avail and at the moment he has no idea what to try for tomorrow. Fellow Serpent/Xceed driver Philip Sting managed to improve his time in the penultimate practice run but dropped to sixth as Mack & Muller improved their earlier pace by a bigger margin.

The 1:8 defending champion, Michael Salven finished practice with 7th fastest time. Having had limited 1:8 track time this year due to his focus on the development of Serpent’s new 747 1:10 chassis, the German said he tried a lot of things today and while some worked most didn’t. Confident that he has a base set-up that works, the Serpent designer said he may not be so fast over three laps but he is able to drive the track very consistently and that is more important when it comes to the 7-minute qualifiers.

In 1:10 Ielasi used the extra practice round to put his Shepherd at the top of the time sheets as he beat early pace setter Dirk Wischnewski by just 1/100th of a second over three consecutive laps. The 2008 World Champion, who in a nice gesture took time out to use his Velox V10 to put the rolled Capricorn of fellow Italian Francesco Tironi back on four wheels during the run, declared himself very happy with his day. Happy with both his car and Sonic engine he said while the evening conditions made for a slightly faster track he was happy that in those same conditions he was fastest and he is confident for tomorrow’s 3 rounds of qualifying.

Losing a screw from the left rear camber link on his Orcan powered NT1, Wischnewski said the set-up he tried in the final practice was ‘OK’ but for the first qualifier he will revert to the set-up he used in this morning’s opening run. Able to rejoin after his pitman for this weekend Robert Pietsch ran back to the former European Champion’s pit area for a new screw, the 30-year-old factory Xray driver is confident that he is in good shape for tomorrow adding that racing over 7-minutes is very different than putting three quick laps together.

Despite his relative lack of track time with Capricorn’s LAB CO2 chassis Eric Dankel ended up third overall thanks, as is also the case for Wischnewski, to his time set in the opening round of practice yesterday. Dankel summed up practice as ‘So, so’ saying that his Novarossi powered car felt pretty good on soft tyres but having tried harder shores with a view to Sunday’s finals they have still to find a better set-up as it was very difficult to drive. Team-mate Tironi produced his best three laps in P7 to finish up 5th fastest. The former World Championship Top Qualifier managed to improve the steering on his Capricorn powered example saying ‘step by step’ they improved the set-up and that they were now almost ready to go qualifying.

Making it four different cars in the Top 4, Serpent’s Mark Green was happy with what was a day all about learning. Running the manufacturer’s new 747 chassis, the British ace’s times have been up & down throughout the day as they tried new things but in the final practice his Novarossi powered example felt particularly good. With the car featuring a number of adjustments which they never had before, such as the adjustable chassis weight, he said they are still working on finding what could be determined as a good base set-up and on ruling out changes that have little efforts on the feeling of the car. Mikael Fransson completed the Top 6 for Serpent, the Swede trying another rear diff set-up in the final practice which was not to his liking.

Defending European Nitro Challenge Champion Patrick Schafer described his day as ‘up & down’ with the Shepherd boss ending up 9th fastest in between the Xray of Dutch National Champion Pedro Rombouts and his own team driver & 2011 Euro B Champion Patrick Nähr.

1:8 Top 10 Practice Ranking
1. Robert Pietsch – Mugen/Novarossi – 52.50
2. Oliver Mack – Shepherd/Picco – 52.65
3. Alberto Picco – Mugen/Picco – 52.90
4. Philip Eberle – Serpent/Xceed – 53.38
5. Marco Muller – Shepherd/Max – 53.53
6. Philip Sting – Serpent/Xceed – 53.53
7. Michael Salven – Serpent/Xceed – 53.67
8. Andreas Giesa – Serpent/Xceed – 54.12
9. Nicolai Bahr – Mugen/OS – 54.17
10.Lars Hoppe – Shepherd/Sonic – 54.21

1:10 Top 10 Practice Ranking
1. Daniele Ielasi – Shepherd/Sonic – 59.50
2. Dirk Wischnewski – Xray/Orcan – 59.51
3. Eric Dankel – Capricorn/Novarossi – 59.86
4. Mark Green – Serpent/Novarossi – 59.93
5. Francesco Tironi – Capricorn/Capricorn – 60.05
6. Mikael Fransson – Serpent/Orcan – 60.08
7. Dominic Greiner – Kyosho/Orion – 60.28
8. Pedro Rombouts – Xray/Orcan – 60.86
9. Patrick Scahfer – Shepherd/Sonic – 60.89
10.Patrick Nahr – Shepherd/Sonic – 61.17

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