Vranckx conquers the Saturday at Estering

While multiple candidates were in condition to fight for the RallyX North title at Estering, the first event of the German double header saw Viktor Vranckx prevail and keep his chances alive by a thread, while top contenders Ulrik Linnemann and Maiko Tamm had more lows than highs over the event.
 
It would have been a Qualifying for Ulrik Linnemann to walk away with it, but grip loss under braking and a last lap roll in Q3 handed the top spot to Viktor Vranckx, with Linnemann still being second due to his top times in Q1 and Q2. There wasn`t that much consistency after them, with Filip Martinsson having a returning Peter Hedström, Tommi Hallman, Oliver Eriksson and Casper Jansson right behind him, while Maiko Tamm was far away from the leaders on track and this reflected in his eighth place in the intermediate standings.
 
Racing at home, René Münnich nearly escaped the drop with the second time in Q3, at a point where he was watching his team mate Mandie August in the top 12, with the two swapping places when it ended. Other surprises from the bottom included Hans-Joran Ostreng and Tom van den Heuvel advancing at the expense of an underwhelming Mikko Ikonen, who got the company of Nathan Ottink and Mitchell DeJong.
 
Semifinal 1 had Vranckx, Hedström failing to go round the outside and Münnich getting creative with his strategy. Martinsson was marking Vranckx, so these two were safe, while Eriksson was holding the third position from the rest of the field, and Ostreng was easy to block, the same couldn’t be said for Münnich, who had the advantage of the undercut and took third place in the final lap while Vranckx and Martinsson kept first and second.
 
Semifinal 2 had Linnemann bullying Hallman out of first place, only to have Jansson right behind him bringing Tamm to the party. Tamm insisted on chasing Jansson and this backfired really hard on Tamm, losing contact with leader Linnemann and saving his third place by 0.015 seconds as Fraser McConnell nearly passed him at the line.
 
In the Final, Linnemann stalled from the front row and was left at the back of the pack with Tamm while Vranckx was leading and Jansson was defending the second place from Martinsson. With Martinsson and Münnich going to the Joker, Tamm and Linnemann were in the middle, with Jansson within striking distance but a retired Münnich stopped near the ideal line. In the end, Vranckx confirmed the advantage and won the race with Jansson in second and Martisson stealing the podium from Tamm at the line, while Linnemann was boxed in fifth place.
 
RallyX - Estering I event results
 
Ostreng still found pace to win the 4WD Am Final while Hallman was the best within the FC2s.
 
Linnemann has a huge chance of securing the RallyX North title before the Final on Sunday, as his 177 points are a big advantage over the 159 from Tamm, 151 from Vranckx and 147 from Martinsson.
 
PHOTO: Hedströms Motorsport