Scandiano, Italy: The top picks to take the win in the Open class came down to three drivers: Hagberg, Jefferies and 2-time defending Champion Ahoniemi. With a large crop of tough competition, it would surely come down to consistency, as all racing does, and a certain amount of luck with lapped traffic.

In Round One, Alexandre Laurent continued his good form from the Spec class to take the win, with Olly Jefferies taking second while teammate Alexander Hagbert pulled off the track. Markus Mobers finished third, and outside favourite Hupo Honigl also came off the track after completing just one lap. Round Two saw Hagberg make the finish, taking second behind Jefferies in first, with Laurent finished third. Simo Ahoniemi didn’t seem to be finding his pace so far, and had to pull off in the second heat. Olly finished first in Round Three, with Markus Mobers finishing second while Laurent claimed another third-place finish. Ahoniemi and Hagberg both finished with 41 laps, the same as the top 3, but were fourth and fifth respectively.
The second half of the Qualifying rounds saw the cream really rise to the top, with the most confident drivers improving their pace as the day went on. Round Four finished with Hagberg, Jefferies and Honigl in the top 3, with Ahoniemi again finishing fourth, trying but not quite able to mount a solid challenge to the quicker drivers.
Round Five was when Olly could take pole position from his teammate Alexander, but an early charge on Hagberg fizzled out as the car went away from him and he got caught up in traffic. Hagberg took the win with Olly in second, with Laurent third. Round Six saw Markus Mobers take the win over Simo, with Hupo in third – Hagberg pulled off after just 17 laps, and Jefferies came off the track a few laps later. Hagberg said both had made ‘stupid mistakes’ to be forced to pull off.

The final Qualifying result:
1. Alexander Hagberg, Sweden
2. Olly Jefferies, Great Britain
3. Markus Mobers, Germany
4. Alexandre Laurent, France
5. Daniel Sieber, Germany
6. Simo Ahoniemi, Finland
7. Arnaud Lemperiere, France
8. Dominic Vogl, Austria
9. Hupo Honigl, Austria
10. Massimo Fantini, Italy

Finals
A Final 1
All the drivers had a clean start, and as Alexander Hagberg started to pull away Markus Mobers started to apply severe pressure to Olly Jefferies. With cars starting to gather behind Olly as his teammate Hagberg was opening up the gap, Olly was forced to drive defensively and not take the fastest lines around the track. His car was visibly not as good around the corners and wasn't as good as it was during the early qualifying rounds. Eventually, Olly could hold back the tide no longer and crashed, letting most of the field by. By this time, Alexander's lead was about 9 seconds over second place Markus, who was being harassed by Hupo Honigl charging through the field from 9th position on the grid. Eventually both Markus and Hupo would make mistakes, giving their places to Alexandre Laurent and Daniel Sieber by the end of the 8 minutes.

A Final 2
Another win would give Alexander his first European Championship, but with his XRAY teammate driving a wounded car and pressure from German Markus Mobers, would he be able to seal up the win? Getting off to a clean start once again helped and although Olly tried to make an early charge at Alex, he made a mistake and let Markus through to try and catch the Swede Alexander. Although Markus tried to apply pressure on Hagberg, Alexander soaked it up and even pulled away. His pace was so strong that he was able to drive well within the limits of the car and when he needed to he could just drive away from the hard-charging Markus Mobers.

With about 3 laps to go, a driver about to be lap tried to let Hagberg past, but Alexander seemed to be trying to calm his pace down and stay behind the backmarker - the confusion meant that Alexander was caught in a small crash that allowed Markus to instantly close the gap between them, and the battle was on once again! On the very last corner after the 8 minutes was up, Markus made a late dive to the inside, crashing into Hagberg - knowing it was a rough move, he waited, but Alexander seemed to be waiting once again, and the cars stutter-started the few metres to the finish line, Hagberg first and Mobers second, giving Alexander Hagberg the overall win and his first European Championship for the proud Swedish racer! Alexandre Laurent finished in third, just ahead of Hupo and Olly.

A Final 3
Alexander elected to sit the third race out, which allowed Olly and Markus to have their own race. With Markus fresh from his Spec class Championship win and Olly with a freshly-built car that handled well, the spectators were treated to a great race between the two Champions (Olly having been crowned British 1/12th Champion recently). Markus laid on pressure for the entire race, never more than a few metres from Olly's rear wing, and towards the end of the race Markus put on a high-pressure charge to force a mistake from Olly, but the British racer never wavered and claimed a victory with the car he should have had all through the Finals. Alexandre Laurent again claimed third, and unfortunately even a round win wouldn't be enough to put Olly on the podium, with Alexandre claiming his second podium spot of the day.

1/12 Open A Final Results
1. Alexander Hagberg
2. Markus Mobers
3. Alexandre Laurent
4. Olly Jefferies
5. Simo Ahoniemi
6. Daniel Sieber
7. Dominic Vogl
8. Hubert Honigl
9. Massimo Fantini
10. Arnaud Lemperiere