Coelho takes Xray home win at ETS finale
Having joined the Euro Touring Series’ elite list of race winners with victory at the penultimate round of the championship in Luxembourg last month, Bruno Coelho has backed that up with win number 2 of his debut ETS campaign today at the Hudy Racing Arena. Securing a career first ETS TQ in Slovakia, the Xray driver secured the overall win at his team’s home track with an even more convincing win in A2 ahead of team-mate Alexander Hagberg.
Happy with his LRP powered T4 in A1, when the winning margin was just 0.257 of a second, Coelho said his car ‘was amazing’ for A2. Winning by 1.5 seconds, the 22-year-old said his car was like how it was in Q2 when he set a blistering TQ pace adding ‘maybe the improvement was due to a good set of tyres’. Able to drive ‘super safe’ he said he could still open up a gap over Hagberg. An extra special win for Xray, the Portuguese driver, whose arrival on the electric touring car scene has injected new found interest in the category, said today’s win was big day for all his sponsors. A relative unknown prior to the World Championships last October where he finished runner-up, it was this performance that catapulted him onto the international scene as Xray signed him up to head their team alongside Hagberg. Coelho said after a ‘difficult beginning’ to his ETS campaign, him openly admitting nerves at the first few races were an issue, it was great to end the ETS season with two wins. The only double winner this season along with champion Ronald Volker, he said with his debut season complete the goal next year was firmly set on lifting the overall title.
On target to make it an Xray 1-2, Hagberg felt his T4 was not as good as the opening final. Putting that down to possibly his second set of tyres not being as good as those he ran in A1, he said the car was still good enough with third placed starter Meen Vejrak unable to catch him. Setting the second fastest lap of the race just 0.062 off Coelho’s best, the Swede said his aim for A3 was to lock up an Xray 1-2, a feat the Slovakian manufacturer has not before achieved.
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