Krapp wins first A-Main
Christopher Krapp has won the opening A-Main of the Ride Modified class at the Euro Touring Series in Gran Canaria. The Top Qualifier drove the perfect race staying calm throughout to hold off a late challenge from World Champion Marc Rheinard with Alexander Hagberg completing the Top 3.
Leading from start to finish, Krapp described the race as a ‘pretty save run’. Able to see that Rheinard was closing him down in the latter part of the race the 19-year-old factory Kyosho/Orion driver said he just focused on staying calm and driving clean lines as he knew even if the Tamiya driver caught right up he still had to get around him. Aware that Hagberg, who starts right behind him on the grid, has a good car on used tyres the German racer thinks his own TF6-SP will be good enough to see off any challenge in the second A-Main.
Starting fourth on the grid, Rheinard was pretty upbeat following his second place finish. Very despondent after yesterday’s qualifiers, the German stayed on at the track to run in the open practice looking for a solution to the problem of his car getting airbourne on the main straight. With the help of his brother Toni, the Tamiya driver adjusted his line on the entry to the straight along with changing to a much lower power setting on his Speed Passion speedo and after this mornings A-Main was much happier with his TRF417. Also trying a different tyre prep, Rheinard was especially happy to find a way passed Hagberg but said with the Swede very fast in the closing stage of the race he was unable to have a proper go at trying to find a way pass Krapp for the win.
Hagberg said his T3 2012 struggled for traction at the start of the race on new tyres and this allowed Rheinard to get passed. As the run progressed the factory Xray found good traction and pace allowing the Snowbirds Champion to close back up to the top 2 but the Swede couldn’t capitalize admitting he made too many mistakes over the curbs which cancelled out any advantage his ORCA powered Xray had over Rheinard’s Tamiya. As he showed in qualifying yesterday, Hagberg’s car makes better use of second run tyres so he will be looking to mount challenge on Krapp early on in the 5-minute encounter in the hope of forcing the fight for the overall win to go to the third leg.
Finishing fourth from 7th on the grid, TRF’s Viktor Wilck could spring a surprise in the second A-Main as the Swede ran used tyres and so now has a brand new set of tyres at his disposal.
In the Xray Pro Stock class Yokomo driver Marek Cerný also convert his first ever TQ into a win. Setting the fastest lap of the race, the Czech driver cruised to a relatively easy win over the Schumacher of defending champion Martin Hofer. Starting sixth on the grid local driver and ETS regular Toni Mateo had a strong race to finish third.
Ride Modified Leg 1 Result
1.(1) Christopher Krapp (DE) – Kyosho/Orion – 17/5:13.837
2.(4) Marc Rheinard (DE) – Tamiya/Speed Passion – 17/5:14.658
3.(2) Alexander Hagberg (SE) – Xray/ORCA – 17/5:15.364
4.(7) Viktor Wilck (SE) – Tamiya/Thunder Power – 16/5:01.753
5.(5) Andy Moore (GB) – Hot Bodies/HPI – 16/5:02.504
6.(10)Eric Dankel (DE) – Yokomo/LRP – 16/5:03.277
7.(6) Elliott Harper (GB) – Tamiya/Orion – 16/5:03.599
8.(9) Chris Grainger (GB) – Schumacher/GM – 16/5:07.047
9.(8) Steen Graversen (DK) – Awesomatix/Thunder Power – 3/0:48.628
10.(3)Ronald Völker (DE) – Yokomo/LRP – DNS
Xray Pro-Stock Leg 1 Result
1.(1) Marek Cerný (CZ) – Yokomo – 16/5:14.560
2.(2) Martin Hofer (DE) – Schumacher – 16/5:14.936
3.(6) Tony Streit (DE) – Xray – 16/5:19.949
4.(10) Alvaro Fernandez (ES) – Tamiya – 15/5:03.223
5.(4) Javier Martinez (GC) – Hot Bodies – 15/5:03.553
6.(8) Carsten Madsen (DK) – Awesomatix – 15/5:05.709
7.(9) Felix Wiessmann (DE) – Yokomo – 15/5:07.549
8.(5) Toni Mateo (ES) – Tamiya – 13/4:25.272
9.(3) Michal Orlowski (PL) – Tamiya – 11/3:37.488
10.(7)Ivan Laptev (RU) – Awesomatix – 2/0:25.193
View the complete results here.
View the event image gallery here.
