Rheinard on pole for ETS Season opener
Marc Rheinard will start the A-Main at the opening round of the Yokomo Euro Touring Series in the Czech Republic from pole position. The Tamiya driver claimed the overall TQ despite Ronald Volker putting in a second TQ run in the final qualifier. With the fastest time of the four rounds which was set in Q3, this would give Rheinard the tie breaker and secure him his first pole since Round 2 last season in Muelheim-Kaerlich. Starting behind the long standing German rivals will be Bruno Coelho, the Xray driver having been on target to top the final heat and secure second on the grid until he rolled as the heat entered the final 2-minutes. Runner-up behind Volker in Hrotovice last year, Alexander Hagberg starts 4th with 2014 podium finisher Yannic Prumper completing the top half of the grid.
With his TQ coming to little last year as he finished 4th, Rheinard is determined to opening his 2015/2016 ETS campaign with a win. Having changed to his second set of tyres for the final qualifier, he said the fresher set which only ran one round of practice did not have as good a pace as the first set. Planning to switch back to first set, A1 being their sixth run, he said this should give him back the steering he was missing in Q4. Asked about the finals, the championship’s most winning driver replied that while Volker is fast, ‘Bruno was pretty fast in the last one (qualifier)’, hoping this plays to advantage if Coelho can mount a challenge on Volker allowing him to break clear at the front.
Have changed to his second set of tyres a round earlier than Rheinard, Volker said going back to his first set of tyres had made his new BD7 2016 more like it was in Q1 with him able to lay down the fastest lap. Also making a shock set-up change to make the rear more stable, an issue he complained of even after TQing the opening heat, he said it did improve things leaving him unsure what to change for A1. Running on Rheinard’s bumper during the final heat, he said ‘even without Marc blocking me for a few laps I probably wouldn’t have been fast enough to beat his Q3 time’. Also acknowlegding Coelho’s performance saying he ‘showed great pace in the last qualiifier’, Volker said ‘it won’t be easy in the sandwich between them (Rheinard & Coelho)’ but he would still ‘try to go for the win’.
Not sure how he flipped his T4 in the last qualifier but thinking he has touched the dot, Coelho again said his car was ‘perfect’. Only 6/1000ths off Volker’s fastest lap, the winner of the final two rounds of last ETS season said ‘I like finals more than qualifying’. Making his carpet racing debut at this event last year qualifying 8th and finishing 6th he continued, ‘I could finish 1st or 10th but my car is really good so I am ready to fight for the win’.
With his final qualifier ruined on the second lap when he made a mistake at the chicane, Hagberg said he didn’t like a set-up change he made for the run and will revert back. Unable to get used to feeling the changes brought about, the Swede wasn’t comfortable driving the car. Feeling with the old set back on the car it will be good enough to run with the three starting ahead of him he will ‘take it easy and see what happens up front’ adding ‘I hope there is the possibility to overtake’.
Making ‘a lot of changes’ to the set-up on his Yokomo, Prumper said they made it ‘a bit more difficult (to drive) but faster’. From 5th on the grid he said a good result was going to be difficult but added ‘let’s see what happens’. Asked if he would make any changes for A1, his mechanic Toni Rheinard responded that they would be using the finals as practice for February’s second Round in Germany and would be trying different things each leg. Behind Prumper, Dionys Stadler will start an impressive 6th after putting in a great final qualifier in which he was fourth fastest from Schumacher’s Michal Orlowski. Unfortunately for Orlowski he would lose out on the final spot on the grid on a tie break with hotly tipped pre race contender Viljami Kutvonen who is giving the Awesomatix A800 its ETS debut.
For the Serpent Formula and Xray Pro Stock A-Mains it is the same driver that will start up front, Jan Ratheisky. The Formula Champion wrapped up the overall TQ for that class by setting the pace for a third time in the final qualifier. Behind last year’s race winner, the Q1 topping Xray of Dutch driver Jitse Miedema starts second followed by Christian Donath and former multiple Pro Stock Champion Alexander Stocker. Last year’s ETS Luxembourg winner Olivier Bultynck completes the front half of the grid. In Pro Stock defending champion Marek Cerny finally topped the times at his home event to secure second on the grid ahead of Q3 winner Tom Krägefski, who as the only person who could deny Ratheisky the overall TQ was 3rd fastest in the deciding qualifier.
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