Sobue snatches Q2 as Volker gets blocked
Tamiya’s Aiko Sobue snatched a TQ run in the second round of qualifying at the Yokomo Euro Touring Series in Austria this morning helped by Q1 pace setter Ronald Volker getting blocked on his final lap. The Japanese driver, who on his arrival in Austria quickly marked himself out as a podium contender topping practice, took the qualifier by 0.387 of a second as Schumacher driver Michal Orlowski cost Volker 4/10ths.
A very happy Sobue, who opened qualifying last night with the 3rd fastest time, said while his driving was better today there was still room for improvement. Leaving his car unchanged from yesterday the 20-year-old said his car was ‘very good’ joking that TRF engineer Takayuki Kono had told him he wasn’t to touch a screw or even remove the battery tape on the TF419. Setting the fastest lap, for Q3 Sobue said his focus is to find more time from improving the consistency of his driving.
‘I hope Michal (Orlowski) learns from his mistake as it cost me a TQ run’, was Volker’s initial comment on Q2. The four time consecutive ETS Champion said his Yokomo was a little more loose this morning and while it helped in terms of giving him steering the overall balance was not perfect. Slower than Sobue and Bruno Coelho in the early part of the run he said his LRP BD7 was strongest in the middle of the run and while ‘Coelho disappeared’ he was able to catch the Tamiya of Akio. Looking to get his car to start stronger he said his engineer Yukijiro Umino will make a set-up change for the penultimate round of qualifying.
Third fastest, Alexander Hagberg said changes to his Xray T4 had made it ‘slightly better’. The Swede said while his start and the finish pace is good he is losing time mid run. Feeling he might be over working his tyres, he said a combination of a set-up change and better driving should help to improve his consistency. Team-mate Coelho was right in the mix for the TQ but with a minute and half to go he rolled his T4 after hitting the curbing dropping him to 9th. The Portuguese driver said while his car was a little loose at the beginning, after that it was ‘super good’ and he would run it unchanged for the next qualifier.
Posting the 4th fastest time, ETS Italy race winner Yannic Prumper described Q2 as ‘worse’ than Q1 when he was ended up P5. The Yokomo driver said his BD7 was both ‘sliding and pushing’ for the first 3-minutes although at the end of the run the car ‘felt good to drive’. Having opted to do just a single warm-up lap having struggled with the car at the start of Q1 after running the full warm-up period, he said this strategy didn’t work. With Yokomo team manager Robert Itoh as his mechanic this weekend he said they will try a different set-up for the third round.
Setting the fifth fastest time Xray’s Marco Kaufmann was ‘maximum happy’ at being able to back up his P6 from Q1. The 21-year-old was running third in the top heat for a time but said nerves got the better of him and his driving was a bit untidy towards the end of the 5-minutes. With the German ‘looking safe’ for his first A-Main start of the season and him ‘very happy’ with his T4 he said the only plan for Q3 is to drive ‘full power’.
Completing the Top 6, Marc Rheinard said while his car feels alright most of the time it ‘sometimes then just does funny things’. Still unable to get on the throttle out of the corners he said Top 6 is pretty much the most he can expect this weekend adding that there is ‘maximum one second to be found’ if he drives better and stays in his rhythm but this is hard as the car suddenly decides to slide. One option the 13 times ETS race winner is considering is changing to his second set of tyres but with tyres improving as they get more runs on them he said the problem is his second set has only run 2-minutes so they could be a further disadvantage.
Serpent’s Marc Fischer would take his S411 to the seventh fastest time but the German said he is losing time with understeer at the start adding it was ‘pushing more than yesterday’ even though he didn’t change set-up. ‘OK’ mid race he said the slow start also meant he then had Volker chasing him down eventually having to open up to let him by all of which adds up to lose time with him only 3/10th off Rheinard. He will ‘change something’, not sure what yet, for Q3. Team-mate Viktor Wilck tried a different set-up to start off the day but said it wasn’t good leading to him making contact with the boards and breaking his car. Behind Fischer, Orlowski would end up P8 while Dionys Stadler completed the Top 10 behind Coelho.
In Formula the second qualifier would see a reverse of Q1 with Serpent’s David Ehrbar pipping reigning champion Jan Ratheisky’s Xray by 0.041 of a second. Xray’s Mike Gosvig completed the Top 3 followed by Michele Romagnoli and former champion Herbert Weber.
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