Confident start of the season by Sandro Zeller

Drexler- Automotive Formula Cup - Salzburgring (AUT)

The motorsport festival at the Salzburgring has delivered a promising start to the circuit season for the Drexler Formula Cup. Even though Saturday was quite rainy during the qualifying sessions in the Nesselgraben, the teams and drivers did not let this stop them from showing a strong performance. With Kurt Böhlen (Franz Wöss Racing) and Paolo Brajnik (PFM), two of the other favourites could not start. On Friday Kurt Böhlen suffered a major engine failure in Formula 3. Brajnik hit the crash barriers in Saturday's qualifying in the paddock corner and damaged his Formula 3. The pole position for the first race was surprisingly taken by Thomas Aregger (Franz Wöss Racing) ahead of title defender Sandro Zeller (Jo Zeller Racing), who played out his entire routine at the start on Sunday morning. Aregger dropped back to 13th place after a spin while Sandro Zeller took the lead. As a result, Thomas Amweg (Jo Zeller Racing), coming from 5th position, took second place. In the course of the 19 laps Aregger plowed through the field with overtaking manoeuvres worth seeing and caught Thomas Amweg two laps before the chequered flag fell.

While Sandro Zeller drove the race home in sovereign style, the duel for second place remained thrilling at all times. At the finish Amweg had to admit defeat by 0.914 seconds. Behind the successful Swiss trio, Formula 3 rookie Danny Luderer celebrated a respectable success with fourth place, especially as the German was denied racing luck in qualifying. Sebastian Freymuth put in a surprisingly strong performance with his Formula 4. He not only managed to win his class. He pushed himself forward to fifth place in the overall race standings. Behind him, Urs Rüttimann (Jo Zeller Racing) came sixth ahead of Luca Iannacone (Franz Wöss Racing), who kept Christian Wachter in check in eighth place. Matei Kacovsky (HKC Academy) initially stopped in fourth position on the grid. Then the Formula 3 rookie only managed 5 laps. Technical problems caused an early retirement.

For the 2nd race on Sunday afternoon Sandro Zeller held the pole position. The Swiss Formula 3 driver converted this position into the lead after the start. In the first third of the race Thomas Aregger still held back, but at the halfway point of the race the thread to the leader broke clearly and Zeller won the race with a 6.574 second lead. Thomas Aregger was able to bring second place safely to the finish. His compatriot Thomas Amweg was only within reach at the beginning of the 19 lap chase. At the finish, Aregger had the lead with 26.544 ahead of Amweg. Thomas Aregger, as well as Thomas Amweg, should be more than satisfied with these podium places. Fourth place, as in the first race, went to Danny Luderer, who was able to push Urs Rüttimann to fifth place. As in the 1st race Sebastian Freymuth dominated the Formula 4 and pushed the two Hungarian young drivers Oliver Michl and Benjamin Berta to the further places. Patrick Schober was fourth, after he had still taken second place in the 1st race and kept Benjamin Berta and Oliver Michel behind him. The Formula Renault category was won by Norbert Groer in both races.

RS.12.07.2020
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