Zelezniki (ck) - “Now we want to win them all” announced Patrick Pigneter after he and Florian Clara had won again. With the fastest time in the second run the Italians managed to beat the leaders after the first run, Aleksandr Egerov/Petr Popov from Russia. “We had a problem in the second run as there was a braking hole from which we came out a bit slow. But the condition of the track was the same for everybody, so in the end we achieved a good time,” explained Pigneter. With five wins in five races Pigneter/Clara demonstrated their number one position and won the GERMANPIPE overall World Cup one race before the end of the season. Now it is up to them to break the record of the Austrians Helmut Ruetz/Andi Ruetz, who in the season of 1995/96 also won the first five races, but were beaten by Juergen Pezzi/Christian Hafner (ITA) in the last race. “But before I for go for a record I want to win the single seater World Cup”, Pigneter stays focused.
“Too bad that it was not enough to win the race”, said van Lazarev who together with Pawel Porschnev closely won the internal Russian competition and finished second. “In the first run we had a mistake in the first curve, but the second run was much better and without any mistakes.” So they managed to swap ranks with their fellow Russians Egerov/Popov who had been in the lead after the first run and eventually had to settle for the third place. Egerov/Popov lost the race in the very first combination of turns where they lost too much speed in a jump. But in the overall ranking Egerov/Popov are fourth now and certainly will fight for the podium with team mates Porschnev/Lazarev. “But the competition is confined to the track. In private life we are friends and are training together”, said Lazarev.

In the women´s event the first run of the 5th World Cup was held today, Friday, already. Once again Ekatharina Lavrentjeva (RUS) is in the lead, followed by Renate Gietl (ITA), Melanie Batkowski (AUT) and Julia Vetlova (RUS). The second run as well as the men´s event will be tomorrow, Saturday.
Result Doubles (12):

1. Patrick PIGNETER/Florian CLARA (ITA), 1:04,22(2), 1:03,98(1), 2:08,20
2. Pawel PORSCHNEV/Ivan LAZAREV (RUS), 1:04,63(3), 1:04,33(2), 2:08,96
3. Aleksandr EGEROV/Petr POPOV (RUS), 1:04,16(1), 1:05,05(4), 2:09,21
4. Andrzej LASZCZAK/Damian WANICZEK (POL), 1:05,49(6), 1:04,66(3), 2:10,15
5. Christian SCHATZ/Gerhard MÜHLBACHER (AUT), 1:05,14(4), 1:06,03(5), 2:11,17
6. Christoph KNAUDER/Thomas KNAUDER (AUT), 1:05,58(7), 1:06,17(6), 2:11,75
7. Thomas WEISS/Andreas LEITER (ITA), 1:05,35(5), 1:06,67(8), 2:12,02
8. Björn KIERSPEL/Christian WICHAN (GER), 1:06,71(8), 1:06,58(7), 2:13,29

World Cup Standings (5/6):

1. Patrick PIGNETER/Florian CLARA (ITA) 500
2. Pawel PORSCHNEV/Ivan LAZAREV (RUS) 380
3. Andrzej LASZCZAK/Damian WANICZEK (POL) 332
4. Aleksandr EGEROV/Petr POPOV (RUS) 277
5. Christian SCHATZ/Gerhard MÜHLBACHER (AUT) 265
6. Björn KIERSPEL/Christian WICHAN (GER) 254
7. Martin MAYERHOFER/Siegfried TRUPPE (AUT) 216
8. Yevhen PRYSYACNYUK/Maryan HYZNER (UKR) 172
9. Rupert BRÜGGLER/Tobias ANGERER (AUT) 165
10. Galabin BOTZEV/Chavdar ARSOV (BUL) 140

Chris Karl
FIL Media Service