Merli dominates the first European championship run in Austria
Overall victory. 2025 European champion and Scuderia Pintarally Motorsport driver Christian Merli was racing his Nova Proto NP-01 Cosworth at the first round of the European hill climb championship, the Rechbergrennen at Tulwitz north of Graz in Austria. Merli had won this event five times before, from 2016 to 2019 and in 2023. On the 4.440 km track there were two official practice runs on Saturday and two race runs on Sunday, with the two Sunday times added up for the final classification.
Christian’s comment
“I wasn’t expecting this, because we only got here at 5am on Friday morning after two weeks of intense work. I didn’t think I’d win, but it was a battle against misfortune. On top of everything else, a bolt on the throttle came loose during the second practice session and we had to stop. Now we’ve got two weeks of work ahead of us before we go to Spain. I’m very happy about this victory at my first race for the Scuderia Pintarally Motorsport.”
The weekend in Austria
On a sunny, summery Saturday, Merli led the first practice session, followed by the Petit brothers from France: Kevin in second place and Sébastien in third. The second practice session took place in the afternoon. The driver from Trentino slowed down significantly halfway through the course and could not complete the run. He remained the fastest in practice, followed by the Czech driver Petr Trnka and Kevin Petit, each in a Nova Proto Turbo. On Sunday Christian Merli won the first race run 0”307 ahead of Kevin Petit and 1.203 ahead of Petr Trnka. In the afternoon, he also won the second race session.
Classification on accumulated times
1st Merli (Nova Proto NP01), 2nd Kevin Petit (Nova Proto NP 01 Turbo) 0”347 behind, 3rd Petr Trnka (Nova Proto NP 01) 3”695 behind.
The FIA European Hill Climb Championship programme
26 April: Rechbergrennen (Austria), 10 May: Subida al Fito (Spain), 17 May: Rampa da Falperra (Portugal), 7 June: Ecce Homo (Czech Republic), 14 June: Glasbachrennen (Germany), 28 June: Coppa Paolino Teodori (Italy), 19 July: Limanowa (Poland), 16 August: Saint-Ursanne (Switzerland), 30 August: Ilirska Bistrica (Slovenia), 20 September: Buzetski dani (Croatia).
Translation by Ruth Scheithauer