4WD to be decided in 3rd Main as Neumann wins A2

Joern Neumann took a surprise win in A2 of 4WD Buggy at the DHI Cup, the 4-time reigning champion benefiting from a number of incidents involving A1 winner Bruno Coelho. Starting from the TQ, World Champion Coelho would get his landing wrong coming out of the back jump section on the first lap allowing Michal Orlowski to go to the front. The Schumacher driver would stay there for two laps but then as Coelho tried a move on the inside the pair made contact dropping both back down the order. This handed David Ronnefalk the lead but it would be brief, the HB driver making a mistake a few corners later at the table top with fourth place starter Neumann finding himself suddenly at the front. The Serpent driver would stay there despite a number of challenges, one of which came from Ronnefalk until a clearly faster Coelho tried a pass. Ronnefalk saying ‘I got taken out. I know I wasn’t fast but you don’t have to take someone out’. In the end it would be Martin Bayer who would come in second with Orlowski getting third ahead of Coelho, meaning A3 will decide the overall winner.

Chasing a fifth 4WD DHI Cup win, Neumann said ‘my car was much better and my lap times where much closer than before’. Having changed the diffs in his SX4 the German said it now had more forward traction and was generally easier to drive. Suffering one crash over the 5-minute when he over jumped, he admitted his rivals made more mistakes than he did and he benefited from that. Going into A3 as the current leader with a 1st & a 2nd, and much happier with his car, he said ‘I hope we have clean start’.

‘Not bad after what happened’ was how Orlowski summed up his third place referring to when Coelho made contact with him. The European Champion said his car was ‘pretty slow’ and as a result he couldn’t build up any kind of gap once he got by Coelho at the start. Planning to run new tyres in A3, the 14-year-old said he hoped this would give him better pace for the decider.

Coelho, who clearly had the quickest car on the track again setting the fastest lap, said ‘I had a bad landing on the first lap and had to open for Orlowski’. He continued ‘I then tried to overtake him on the inside and we touched. I waited but this made it difficult to go for the win’. Commenting on his contact with Ronnefalk, the Portuguese driver said ‘I was not sure if it was my fault but I waited’. After his perfect A1 performance he will be hoping he can repeat in A3 as he tried to wrap up his DHI Cup debut with the overall win.

View the complete 4wd Buggy results here.

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