Our team arrived to A1-Ring in Austria with the aim to confirm the excellent result from Italy, where after a long time we could again enjoy the sweet feeling of the podium. Friday was reserved for test trainings and David prepared the first shock for the very beginning. In the initial two laps he made the time which was almost one minute slower than the other pilots. As it appeared later, the problem was not his slow driving, but the route: he just took his way along the classic "formula" circuit, which is almost two kilometres longer.
On Saturday afternoon black clouds were moving around A1-Ring and the track was wet of heavy rain. Gerd was feeling his element and immediately in the first free practice he took second place losing one tenth of second to Luostarinen. The second practice was won by Gerd. David was also doing very well, making third and fourth time.
The decision-making about tyres and adjustments prior to the time practice was very close to lottery. The mountain climate of this circuit is just unpredictable. The team betted on dry weather and this proved to be right. The ranking on the top changed several times and Gerd was not missing there. David shocked everybody by taking the first position ahead of Gerd just before the end of the time period. However, in the last minute or joy was spoilt by Luostarinen and Bösiger, who overtook both Buggyras just by thousandths of second.
But there was even more of disappointment to come: Checking the official results we found out that both our pilots were moved to the last row as a penalty for exceeding the permitted number of laps. Most probably they were still able to sleep well and to forget this bad luck, because right from the start they were struggling forward and in the finish of the first lap they were already driving on positions three and four behind Luostarinen and Bösiger. In the fifth lap they took advantage of Bösiger's collision and moved just behind the leading Finn. In the 13th lap, which was last but one, Ferte from France hit David's rear and pushed him out of the track. Until he managed to get back, he dropped to fifth place behind Albacete. Nevertheless he was able to resist safely the attacks of Matějovský and his Tatra.
Gerd had the best start to the final race and he was the one to set the pace until the beginning of the third lap. Then he was overtaken by Luostarinen after an immense pressure. The ranking did not change till the end of the race and both of them finished far ahead of all the other competitors. David also started very well and he was able to keep excellent fourth position for two thirds of the race. In the finish curve of the 16th lap he went out of the track for a moment and dropped by two positions. Then Matějovský took the advantage of the very same place during the last lap and pushed David out again. This meant seventh place for him, but anyway the team leader Martin Koloc was satisfied. He thanked to the whole team for good work at a short meeting after the race. After three events Gerd reduced the loss to Albacete on the second place to 11 points. David is seventh, 4 points behind Matějovský.
