Sobue wins A1 as Volker & Coelho clash twice
Akio Sobue has won the opening A-Main at Round 4 of the Yokomo Euro Touring Series in Austria this morning, the Tamiya driver benefiting from a widely anticipate clash between Top Qualifier Ronald Volker and the No.2 starting Bruno Coelho. Also benefiting from the incidents, Alexander Hagberg would challenge Sobue for the lead towards the end of the race but contact with the Tamiya 3-laps from the finish would leave the Swede to have to settle for second around difficult to overtake temporary fahr(T)raum track. Having fallen to fourth Volker would manage to get back past his Yokomo team-mate Yannic Prumper to complete the Top 3 while Coelho would pull off after his second clash with the German.
Having declared yesterday that his third place on the grid was probably the best place to be considering the history between the two starting ahead of him, Sobue said his passage to the front came a little quicker than expected as he took the lead on the opening lap. Having struggled in the final qualifying when in contention for the overall TQ after his TRF419 suffered on new tyres in the low traction conditions, the 20-year-old had old tyres on for A1 but said they may be at the end of their life as he struggled with slight understeer. Not a huge issue and able to see off the challenge of Hagberg he said the race was pretty straight forward. With no option to change to another set of tyres, for A2 he will run less camber adding he just hopes for a repeat of A1.
Hagberg said after ‘some dramas up front’ he was able to follow Sobue in second. With the track having slightly less traction than yesterday, the Swede said his T4 took time to come in and it was not until the end of the race that he was able to mount a challenge on Sobue. He said at this stage it was too late and while he did attempt a move he said there was also no room to overtake. Hoping for ‘more bite’ in A2 he said his car should be better from the start allowing him more time to force an error from Sobue.
A diplomatic Volker opened his comments on the race with praise for his BD7. Setting the fastest lap of the race, the reigning champion said ‘first of all my car was very good considering that the traction felt lower than yesterday but I could not show the pace because Bruno took me out early’. Recovering from the first incident he said he was able to catch Hagberg no problem, as his car was ‘way faster’ but he couldn’t find a way past as the Nitro Touring Car World Champion made no mistakes. Slowed by this he said ‘once Bruno caught my ass he took me out in the same spot ‘ as lap one. Describing the second incident as ‘pretty bad’ he added ‘I was able to run carefully behind Alex but Bruno just ran me over’. The 11-time ETS race winner added ‘blaming me aggressively that the second incident was my fault is bad sportsmanship and I hope he can do better in A2’.
Coelho was adamant the second incident was Volker’s mistake. The Portuguese driver said the German braked or got his car into a slide causing him to touch it. Describing the contact with Volker as ‘strange’, he said his decision to pull off having waited on Volker after both incidents surrounded confusion over a Stop&Go penalty that he understood was called for him but in fact was for another driver. He made opinion on this clear to race officials after the race suggesting to them that they call drivers by name rather than race number. Commenting on how his T4 ran in the race, the 21-year-old said it was ‘super good’ and he was looking forward to A2.
In the Xray Pro Stock A-Main, Top Qualifier Lars Hoppe took his ARC to a tone to tone win over the Xrays of Mike Gosvig and last year’s winner Jan Ratheisky. For reigning champion Marek Cerny, who just scrapped onto the back of the grid, his weekend didn’t improve as he finished 9th, 2-laps down on the winner. In Formula, the defending Champion checked out from pole position while all sorts of chaos broke out behind. In the end Jacques Libar, from sixth on the grid, took second in front of a wingless David Ehrbar.
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