Martin sees off Ronnefalk to take A1

Lee Martin won the opening 2WD A-Main at the EOS in Berlin this afternoon after seeing off a strong challenge from David Ronnefalk.  Top Qualifier for the second round of the championship, the Yokomo driver led from start to finish with a late mistake from Ronnefalk allowing him to cruise to a 1.7-seconds winning margin.  Making the race their own, behind them it was Joern Neumann who completed the Top 3 after contact from Martin Wollanka on lap 4 dropped him back down the order.

‘I just tried to stay out in front and I hope I keep doing that’, was how Martin summed up the race.  Saying he was under no more pressure than anyone would be with a car running behind him he said he also ‘knew David was not stupid’ so once he kept his line he would be ok.  The 2WD Vice World Champion did have two moments during the race but said while it allowed Ronnefalk to close in they were never enough for him to be able to pull off a pass.  His first moment was in the chicane where he got his YZ-2 out of shape half way into the race while the second saw him run a very wide line at the end of the straight. Commenting on them both he said throughout the race he ‘kept missing his line through the chicane’ and at the end of the straight he just got offline but with his brake setting ‘not super high’ it made it hard to get it stopped.

Ronnefalk said he took it easy for the first few laps as he didn’t want to crash.  While losing a bit of ground on the leader once Neumann dropped back following his incident he then was able to up his pace and make back ground.  Able to close in on Martin, the HB driver setting the fastest lap of the race, he said with passing on the track hard he just stayed behind Martin waiting for a mistake.  Although he made ‘small mistakes’, Ronnefalk said he was not close enough to benefit and then he made a mistake of his own in the centre of the track which required is Team C to be marshalled.  After that he said he settled for second as Neumann was back up to third. Seeing only two passing points on the track both of which needed the driver ahead to get offline he said the plan is to follow Martin and just hope he makes bigger errors this time.

Neumann said ‘Wollanka took me out’ and ‘I had ‘no chance after that’.  Admitting that even without his incident both Martin & Ronnefalk had a bit of an edge he said ‘being realistic’ he needs them to have mistakes to have a chance at winning.  Behind Neumann Martin Bayer would get ahead of Xray team-mate Wollanka to finish 4th with Norwegian teenager Joakim Nicolaisen completing the Top 6 for Team Associated.

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