Prumper fastest in final practice
Team Yokomo’s Yannic Prumper is the top seed for qualifying at the Yokomo Euro Touring Series 3rd round taking place in Gran Canaria, the German driver setting the fastest 3-consecutive laps in the final round of practice which saw the top 25 drivers improve their times. With clouds covering the sun and the wind that effected the first practice gone, Prumper improved on Alexander Hagberg’s earlier lead pace by over 1-second to top the the final timing sheet by 6/100th from the Kyosho of last year’s winner Christopher Krapp and his Yokomo team-mate Ronald Volker with Hagberg posting the 4th fastest time.
The winner the last ETS race to be held on asphalt when he won the season finale in Austria, Prumper said conditions for the second practice were better but changing from double jointed rear drive shafts to the single joint version his BD7 had better forward traction. Happy with the overall feeling of his car, the 19-year-old said he will leave everything as is for the opening qualifier which will take place this evening and bring the first official day of the event to a close.
Krapp was happy with his pace saying that like last year when conditions are cooler his car works better. Running a new set of tyres and trying a different additive and management of how it was applied, he said in combination with the track conditions it helped improve how the car felt. Topping the opening qualifier last year, the German said with the cloud cover set to stay around for Q1 he will run everything as is for Q1.
‘Pretty good’ was how defending champion Volker summed up his final practice. Satisfied with his average pace over the run, the German said he will copy Prumper in changing his rear drive shafts which he said should give him the little extra he is looking for from his BD7.
Hagberg said his Xray T4 developed understeer as the cooler conditions caused the traction to come up. Still able to improve his time from the previous practice by 7/10, the Swede said he will decide on whether to change his set-up depending on what the cloud cover is like near the time of his first qualifier. Team-mate Adrien Bernsten improved his time by 1.5 seconds to go 7th fastest putting him in the top heat.
Marc Rheinard said while the track was faster he also felt small changes to his Tamiya had helped improve the car. Setting the fifth fastest time, the 3-time World Champion said the biggest thing is now the preparation of the tyres and having them right for the conditions at the time of each run. Second fastest in the opening timed practice, team-mate Viktor Wilck could only manage the 11th fastest time after he made a shock change on his TRF417. Set to run in the B-qualifying group, the Swede said he will go back to the same shocks he ran at the start of the day for Q1.
Completing the Top 6 was Andy Moore. Running a thinner shock oil on his Hobby Wing powered HB TCXX, the British driver said it felt better overall and very consistent over the duration of the run so he plans to leave it as is and see how he fairs in the first qualifier.
In the Xray Pro Stock class Team Xray driver Marek Cerny was again the pace setter this time from the Awesomatix of Finnish talent Viljami Kutvonen. Unable to improve his opening time Bart Wubben completed the Top 3 while Martin Hofer, who also could not improve on his pace, dropped to fifth behind Dominic Vogl.
View the event image gallery here.
