Our team was going to France with much concern, but also much hope. Everyone was afraid of the same tropical heat as last year, when soaring temperatures caused a lot of suffering not just to the team, but also to the vehicles. On the other hand we knew that even under those trying circumstances, David managed to secure a medal place both last year and the year before. The advantage of Ludovic has been the position of a leading pilot and the support of the spectators, as he was driving on home turf.
The Saturday's free practice session was accompanied by relatively nice weather, and we could be satisfied with the results of our pilots. Ludovic ended up second twice and David even managed to score a victory in the third practice. The dominant position of Buggyra was underscored by two victories for Albacete. Before timed practice, the sky became overcast, and everybody began to fear rain. This was reflected in the times of the first laps, where a number of personal records were beaten. Unfortunately David's initial momentum was partially lost due to one of the local pilots. When the first drops of rain fell, Östreich was ahead of Ludovic, David and Albacete. David used a brief rain-shower for an authorised change of the front axle. After the break, Östreich managed to improve on his time, and the same was true for David. However, the latter's time improvement was just about sufficient for strengthening his position over Albacete, who was looming large in his mirrors. The spirits of the Czech members of the team were raised on hearing about the victory of the Czech football team over the Dutch.
Encouraged by the wonderful time secured in the warm-up, David charged into the qualifying race with lightening speed and soon fought his way up to second place behind Östreich. Ludovic was third, being shadowed by Albacete. However, the Spaniard was tried too press forward too enthusiastically in the last bend, and slid off the road thus falling one place back and loosing contact with the leading trio. The order of the first three pilots - Östreich, David and Ludovic - stayed unchanged for the full nine laps. All three arrived to the finishing line in close succession, half a minute ahead of others. Albacete finally placed fourth, overtaking Drückenmüller, who was plagued by technical problems.
The final race saw a repeat of a similar scenario. After the rolling start, Östreich and David managed to get well ahead of the pack. Third place was heavily contested between Ludovic and Albacete. Their duel ended after five out of fourteen laps, when Ludovic secured the third spot and began to increase his lead. David decided to play it safe, being aware of the importance of every point earned. Until the last lap, the victorious David managed to keep a two second distance form Östreich (who also avoided mistakes), and made the overall order change dramatically.
After four races, David is back in lead by two points over the duo of Ludovic - Östreich, and 13 points ahead of Albacete.
