Kutvonen top seed at ETS Italy
Viljami Kutvonen is the top seed for qualifying at Round 4 of the Yokomo Euro Touring Series in Italy. The first asphalt race of the season, the Awesomatix driver set the fastest 3-consecutive laps around Road Race Riccione RC Circuit Marco Simoncelli from Marc Rheinard by a considerable 4/10ths of a second. Initially credited with the fastest time but having his best lap disallowed for a track cut, championship leader Bruno Coelho would complete the Top 3 followed by Kyle Branson and reigning champion Ronald Volker.
‘Pretty good I guess’, was how Kutvonen summed up his performance in practice. The Finn continued, ‘I struggled yesterday but found some problems with the car last night and now it’s pretty good’. Commenting on the track he added, ‘I like the track but actually last year I hated it as I finished somewhere like 36th’. Racing the shaft drive A700 then, this is his first time to race the belt drive A800 on asphalt which is ‘a big step forward’ adding ‘lets hope it stays the same for qualifying’. Looking to the first qualifier, 2 scheduled for this evening due to the threat of rain tomorrow, he said ‘I will leave the car unchanged and just focus on making a clean 5-minute run’.
Running two cars in practice, the key difference being the flex of the chassis, Rheinard found today it was his second car that was quicker with it having been the other way round in open practice yesterday. Describing his ‘better car’ as ‘still difficult to drive’ he said the track is also proving difficult due to the ‘bumps, low traction and wind’ adding ‘many people are just flying off the track’. Set to run the 2nd of his two TRF419X cars in Q1, he said with conditions making it ‘kind of a lottery’ in terms of getting a good run he was planning to leave the car unchanged and instead ‘just try to get a clean run in’.
‘I think it was good’ was Coelho’s reaction after the second practice in which all the top drivers improved on their opening time. Declaring his flip after contact with the curbing ‘my mistake’, the 2015 Riccione podium finisher was confident that without this he would have posted the fastest time as his previous two laps of the three where quicker than the three that ended up being counted. Making a change to his Hobbywing powered T4 between the two controlled practices he said the track also changed and so his car was not right for the conditions and he will change it again for Q1. Asked about the track, where he shot into title contention last year, he said ‘its super difficult. With the bump (on the entry to the main straight) you close your eyes every time as the car jumps but you never know how it will land or if it will fly off the track’.
Setting the fourth fastest time with an updated Capricorn car he is running for the first time this weekend, Branson said it ‘feels pretty good after the changes’. Featuring a new chassis that has a different weave and carbon brace that replaces the tradition top deck, the British driver said the TE03 now has ‘more overall traction’. Changing the car after CP1 to a harder diff and adding weight to the front of the car to stop it lifting on power he said these changes ‘helped a little bit’. The 22-year-old plans to ‘just (the) leave car as is’ for Q1 adding ‘hopefully it will be dry’.
Having set the pace in first controlled practice, Volker said while conditions were better for CP2 his Yokomo ‘lacked a lot of traction’. Ending up P5 he would be 1-second off Kutvonen’s pace. A track the German rates as one of the best in the World, he put his drop off in performance down to tyres. With the final practice the first time he’s had a problem with the car since arriving at the track the Round 3 winner will not the change his BD7 set-up adding ‘I hope it was just a bad set of tyres’.
Completing the Top 6, Alexander Hagberg said his Xray was ‘not as good as yesterday’. The Swede said his ORCA powered T4 had ‘less traction’ and they ‘need to figure out why’. Just 0.056 behind the multiple ETS race winner, team-mate Alessio Menicucci said his car was ‘working very well’. The Italian described the track as ‘beautiful’ but added ‘it is difficult to be consistent because of the bumps and low traction’. Formula Champion Jan Ratheisky, who is racing all three classes this weekend, would make it four Xray’s in the Top 10 with the 8th fastest time.
Having claimed his first ETS podium finish last year at the track, Yokomo’s Meen Vejrak would post the 9th fastest time followed by the Serpent of Viktor Wilck. Just outside the Top 10, Kutvonen’s Awesomatix team-mate Freddy Sudhoff would post the P11 time ahead of the Schumacher of reigning British Champion Elliot Harper.
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