Christian Merli 2nd in Spain
Christian Merli with his naturally aspirated Nova Proto NP01 Cosworth has finished second overall at the 53rd Subida al Fito in Spain, the fourth round of the European hill climb championship. He achieved third place in the first race run, second place in the second and first in the third. With each driver’s best two times retained for the final classication, Christian is second overall. Kevin Petit leads the provisional general championship classification with 83 points, just 4 points ahead of Merli.
Interview with Christian
“I’m not happy with my times. We’re struggling, and I’m quite far from my record. Congratulations to Iraola Lanzagorta, who has had an excellent race. We improved during the weekend and won the third race heat. A good result with a second place overall. But now we’re going back to Italy and we have to find out what we need to do to improve.”
The weekend in Spain
There are three race runs on the 5.350 km long track, with the two best results retained. In the first practice run on Saturday in sunny weather, Kevin Petit from France with the Nova Proto NP01 Turbo tops the timesheet, 1”615 ahead of local driver Joseba Iraola Lanzagorta with a similar car. Christian Merli at the wheel of his naturally aspirated Nova Proto Cosworth is third, 3”166 behind. In the second practice run, Petit is again first, with Merli second. In the third run, the Spaniard goes all in with his supercharged engine and wins. Merli is 1”101 behind him, Kevin Petit 1”818.
The race
On Sunday, in sunny weather, Joseba Iraola Lanzagorta wins the first run in record time, followed by Kevin Petit and Christian Merli. The Spaniard wins again in the second run. Merli is only 0”359 behind him, third is Kevin Petit. The third run sees Merli winning, followed by Petit and Iraola Lanzagorta. Based on accumulated times of the two best runs, local driver Iraola Lanzagorta conquers the top step of the podium. Merli is second, 1”816 behind, and Petit third, 3”126 behind.
The FIA European Hill Climb Championship programme
13 April: Col Saint-Pierre (France), 27 April: Rechbergrennen (Austria), 11 May: Rampa da Falperra (Portugal), 18 May: Subida al Fito (Spain), 1 June: Ecce Homo (Czech Republic), 8 June: Trento – Bondone (Italy), 20 July: Limanowa (Poland), 3 August: Osnabrück (Germany), 17 August: Saint-Ursanne (Switzerland), 31 August: Ilirska Bistrica (Slovenia), 21 September: Buzetski dani (Croatia).
Translation by Ruth Scheithauer