Marc Rheinard RC topped the first qualifier in the Modified class, half a second up on his TONISPORT / Awesomatix team-mate Yannic Prümper, with Ronald Völker (Team Yokomo) taking third one second further back. Bruno Coelho, leading the field off after securing the top seed in qualifying, ended the round in fourth place as the lead XRAY, with Christopher Krapp rounding out the top five for Yokomo.
Pro Stock always creates close action, and the first qualifier today was no different – just six tenths of a second covered the top three, and three seconds was the difference from first and eighth. After a tight five minutes, it was Xray’s Jan Ratheisky who stopped the clock fastest, with the Awesomatix of Olivier Bultynck second, despite Ollie setting the fastest single lap of the race. Simon Lauter made it two Awesomatix in the top three, with Alexandre Duchet (Xray) and Dominic Vogl (Awesomatix) making up the rest of the top five.
One second was the gap at the top of the Formula class in Q1. Jan Ratheisky set the best time, with David Ehrbar second in the round. As many expected, the battle was really on for third place between these two long-standing experts of the class – and it was Lukas Hoch RC who came out best, two seconds behind Ehrbar. Belgian Ollie Bultynck and Brit Luke Lee RC completed the top five in the opening qualifier.
Showing just how close the Front Wheel Drive class is, it was a small surprise that when the dust had settled, the TQ had been set by Henrik Heitsch, the German driver not seeding himself in the top heat of the class but managing to set a five-minute run three tenths of a second quicker than top heat winner, Stefan Schulz. Marwin Riedelbauch was three tenths of a second further back in third, Robin van Gog fourth and ETS Vienna TQ driver Steven Møller Olsen fifth.
Alexander Stocker continues to make the +40 Masters class his own, the only driver to set a 19 lap run in Q1. As he had been in qualifying in Vienna, Nathan Parker was best of the rest, but about 7 seconds behind the current Champion. Werner Schmitzer was three seconds back on Parker to complete the top three, with Roger Krähemann putting in a great run in the ‘B’ group to take fourth and Gregor König rounding out the top five of the opening round.
In the 17.5 Stock class, Joachim Altenhof set the best time, just under a second up on ETS Vienna winner Daniel Pöhlmann. Pohlmann was in turn just half a second in front of Alexander Muller, with Marwin Riedelbauch and Karsten Bartsch within a second of Muller to complete an all-German top five.
