Suzuki Cup: Four people for one Hallelujah

Marcel Muzzarelli ahead of Sandro Fehr, Patrick Flammer and Fabian Eggenberger was the ranking in the first slalom of Frauenfeld. In the same second - with a driving time of over two and a half minutes - was only the surprising Reto Steiner.

Amazing Reto Steiner
After last year's test runs, the man from Schwyz sensationally made the switch from the E1 Escort to the front-wheel drive car. P6 in the second race confirms this.

Roland Graf, Jean-Claude Debrunner, Rolf Tremp, Ralf Henggeler and Stefan Böhler, who were 1.45 seconds behind the first run winner, were separated by only fractions of a second.

Quartet capable of improvement
How thin the air is even after a break of almost two years, if you disregard slalom test days, was shown in the second race. The top 4 all stepped it up a notch and diced the order anew.

So Eggenberger - the 2019 championship runner-up - came out on top with the day's fastest time, closely followed by "Muzz", Fehr and the Flammer Speed Speed personified Glarner.

Foot and head must harmonize
The 2019 dominant Muzzarelli and his opponents know that races are decided not only with the throttle foot, but also in the mind.

Fabian Eggenberger: "I stopped studying because I had thought too much in the morning in Frauenfeld. Promptly, I was 1.5 seconds faster after barely improving from training to the first race in the morning."

The champion has not been doing this for a long time anyway and was therefore absolutely satisfied with second place.

Marcel Muzzarelli: "If you want to win, everything simply has to fit. The important thing is that the time gaps are small."

Racecourse again at last
For this reason, Sandro Fehr also flourished with his two podium finishes after only going downhill two years ago after a strong start to the season.

Sandro Fehr: "The important thing is that I also went 2:31, with Fabian and Muzz setting incredible times. I feel much more ready than in 2019. And it felt good to finally ride again. I missed that camaraderie."

New points system forces consistency
It's not going out on a limb to say that one of this quartet will be champion. Even the absent third overall from 2019, Simeon Schneider, is not likely to change anything if he enters the fray late. The new points system is responsible for this.

In order to keep the championship open until the end and to reward each classification individually with sometimes more than 30 starters, the grading is minimal. A winner receives 50 points, the second and each successor only one point less.

First places are therefore good for self-confidence, but not match decisive. It's more a matter of consistency over the rest of the season. With 99 points, the defending champion has only two more than the Eggenberger/Fehr duo (97 each) and four more than Flammer (95).

Reto Steiner, who is also driving the Suzuki Swift Sport for the Flammer Speed Team, is Best of the Rest with 91 points, followed by Debrunner (90). In the battle for 5th place in Race 2, these two were separated by just two hundredths, while Graf, Henggeler and Rico Thomann were already more clearly behind in 7th to 9th place.

In the top ten with hybrid model
Cue Thomann: The 2019 Swiss junior mountain champion showed his talent right away, even between the pylons. His ninth place and the gap of less than three seconds was all the more astonishing as it made him the best of the three drivers with the new Swift Sport Hybrid.

This is less powerful and also heavier than the gasoline engine. According to internal calculations, an expert loses one second per minute with it. One calculates...

The time lost by Michaël Béring, another newcomer, was also limited in both races (14th in each). They can regard their handicap as an investment in the future if hybrid-only racing really does take place in 2022.

Alexandra with laughing and crying eye
Alexandra Mühlethaler deserves special mention. The only lady in the 25-strong field was extremely annoyed after race 1 after she had touched the last gate in the faster second run - without the ten penalty seconds she would have been eleventh.

She confirmed her upwardly mobile form in the second race with 13th place, which was also her best result to date. About which her vehicle and life partner Michael Spörri was at least as happy as she was, despite the first clear defeats...

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