Coelho heads Xray 1-2 in Q1
Bruno Coelho led an Xray 1-2 this morning at the Yokomo Euro Touring Series in Germany, TQ’ing the opening qualifier ahead of team-mate Alexander Hagberg. Having topped the times in practice yesterday, the Round 1 podium finisher would be 1.3-sec faster than Hagberg with reigning ETS Champion Ronald Volker completing the Top 3 a further 1.3-sec off the pace. Winner of the Muelheim-Kaerlich encounter last year, Marc Rheinard would post only the 6th fastest time with his World Champion TRF team-mate Naoto Matsukura, who was second in practice, retiring from the qualifier with a bad handling car.
‘Everything was good, no mistakes. I just tried to drive a safe round and I think it was good’, was Coelho’s reaction to his TQ run. |Describing his Hobbywing powered T4 as ‘really good’, the 22-year-old added it was ‘missing a little steering in slow corners’ and he will make a small set-up change ‘to improve this point’ for Q2.
Winner of the event two years ago with a dominant performance, Hagberg said, ‘I wasn’t driving too well and had two mistakes. Without these I think it could have been a TQ run’. Despite setting the fastest lap of the qualifier, the Swede also felt his ORCA powered T4 was a little lacking in corner speed. Having changed his set-up when drivers were faced with running on the ‘old carpet’, he said when the new carpet was laid down while he changed the set-up he ‘didn’t go completely back’ to the set-up he ran in pre-event testing at the Hudy Arena and he will for Q2 and go with harder shock springs.
Tapping the boards at the end of the straight and suffering ‘a surprise traction roll’ four laps later, Volker said considering this ‘finishing 3rd was OK’. Feeling he only had the potential to get a P2 even with a clean round, the Yokomo driver said ‘we need to find something that give me a better feeling with the car if we are to catch Bruno’. Not winning the season opener for the first time in his 5-year reign as the ETS Champion, Rheinard beating him in Hrotovice, Volker said ‘Marc ended up behind me so it could have been a worse start to qualifying but hopefully in Q2 we can challenge for a TQ run’.
Top Tamiya for the round, Akio Sobue would post the 4th fastest time. The reigning Japanese Champion, who enjoyed a podium finish in Austria last season, said other than a ‘small mistake’ it was a ‘good’ run. His first carpet ETS outing, the 22-year-old said on the new carpet he likes the track layout but looking for more steering from his TRF419 he will make a small change as he continues to get a proper feel for the carpet, having only had 2-minutes practice on the good carpet yesterday. Team-mate Matsukura, whom he beat to the 2015 Japanese National title, said his Tamiya had ‘maximum high traction’ and he ‘couldn’t drive it’. Saying ‘I need understeer’, he will change to a harder shock set-up and lower the upper arms.
‘Solid’ was how Yannic Prumper summed up his P5 time. The Yokomo driver, who has been on the podium at the German round for the last three years, said he drove ‘too aggressive at the start’ and with his BD7 ‘a little tricky at the chicane’ this resulted in two mistakes. As he ‘got used to the car being loose’ he said he was able to put in a solid run but planning a set-up change he is hopeful of a stronger showing second time round.
‘That was not what I hoped for’ was Rheinard’s reaction to a disappointing Q1, the championship leader adding his car was ‘just not fast enough and difficult to drive’. Leading away the heat and having to open up for Volker, Coelho and Hagberg, he said with the ‘pace just not there’ he will switch car for Q2. With Tamiya Racing Factory team-manager Takayuki Kono bringing a new car from Japan for the event Rheinard, who ran his Hrotovice winning car in Q1, said, ‘this has some of Kono’s own ideas on it so I will try this’. Behind Rheinard Olly Jefferies, who made his ETS A-Main debut at Round 1, would set the 7th fastest time followed by Xray team-mate Marco Kaufmann with the VBC of Lucas Urbain and Awesomatix of Viljami Kutvonen rounding out the Top 10.
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