Passeier (ck) - „It is a good feeling when you know that you can win and you are not at your limit“, said Patrick Pigneter/Florian Clara (ITA) after winning the race. “We still brake in the curves whereas others go full speed. And our favorite tracks have yet to come.” At least in the double’s event Pigneter/Clara let no doubt that they are racing in their own league again. After the first run, Pigneter/Clara were only one hundredth of a second ahead of Pavel Porshnev/Ivan Lazarev (RUS). “In the second run we did extremely well in the middle part and I think we won the race on the straightaway at the end”, analyzed Pigneter/Clara, now the sole leaders in the GRM World Cup. In the internal Russian duel this time the experienced double Pavel Porshnev/Ivan Lazarev was ahead and with their second place they achieved their best result in this season. Just in time for the European Chamionships next week they are back in shape: “At the beginning of the winter we had troubles with our sled as well as with our technique, but now we really made some progress. We have to thank our coach Andrej Knyr who really spent a lot of time working on our sled”, said Lazarev. They see the competition within their team as a good thing: “It is great when you have so strong people in your own team, so we both become better and better.” Aleksandr Egorov/Petr Popov, recently permanently runner up, finished third, but are still second in the overall GRM World Cup. “We had a good feeling here from the beginning and in the training run we already thought that anything would be possible here, but then we had a major mistake in the second run“, said Egorov. But their focus is the European Championships now, next week: “We did everything for this race”, said Popov, an engineer for electronics from Kandalaksha. Austria’s doubles had to settle for the spots next to the podium this time: Christoph Regensburger/Dominik Holzknecht finished fourth, Christian Schopf/Andreas Schopf fifth. In the doubles‘ Nations Cup Pavel Silin/Iwan Rodin (RUS) won ahead of Rupert Brüggler/Tobias Angerer (AUT) and Stanislav Kovshik/Ilya Tarasov (RUS). In the women’s GRM World Cup the first run was held today, Saturday, and Ekatharina Lavrentjeva (RUS) put herself at the top of the field. She is followed by the Italian threesome of Greta Pinggera, Evelin Lanthaler and Carmen Planötscher. The current leader in the world cup, Tina Unterberger (AUT) is ranked fifth with a half second gap behind Lavrentjeva. Italy scored a win in the Nation’s Cup: Sara Bachmann won ahead of Melanie Svhwarz (ITA). Lubov Starikova (RUS) finished third, followed by Austria’s Michelle Diepold and Katrin Mladek. In the men’s qualification Florian Breitenberger (ITA) won ahead of Florian Clara (ITA). They will start in the GRM World Cup together with seeded Patrick Pigneter and Alex Gruber. The Austrian world cup team will be completed by Thomas Schopf and Bernd Neurauter. World Cup leader Michael Scheikl and Thomas Kammerlander are seeded. New Zealand’s new and very young team can be happy about Jack Leslie’s 17th place in the qualification as he claimed the last spot in the world cup field of 25. Final Results Doubles: 1. Patrick PIGNETER/Florian CLARA (ITA), 0:58,62(1), 0:58,62(1), 1:57,24 2. Pavel PORSHNEV/Ivan LAZAREV (RUS), 0:58,63(2), 0:59,02(2), 1:57,65 3. Aleksandr EGOROV/Petr POPOV (RUS), 0:58,70(3), 0:59,55(3), 1:58,25 4. Christoph REGENSBURGER/Dominik HOLZKNECHT (AUT), 0:59,27(5), 0:59,62(4), 1:58,89 5. Christian SCHOPF/Andreas SCHOPF (AUT), 0:58,93(4), 0:59,97(5), 1:58,90 6. Andrzej LASZCZAK/Damian WANICZEK (POL), 1:00,60(6), 1:01,56(6), 2:02,16 GRM World Cup Ranking Doubles (3/7): 1. Patrick PIGNETER/Florian CLARA (ITA) 270 2. Aleksandr EGOROV/Petr POPOV (RUS) 240 3. Christian SCHOPF/Andreas SCHOPF (AUT) 210 4. Pavel PORSHNEV/Ivan LAZAREV (RUS) 200 5. Christoph REGENSBURGER/Dominik HOLZKNECHT (AUT) 158 6. Rupert BRÜGGLER/Tobias ANGERER (AUT) 122