Volker to start P2 as Coelho completes quali clean sweep
Ronald Volker will start second on the grid for the first A-Main of the new season of the Euro Touring Series. With the Top Qualifier already decided in the penultimate round of qualifying when reigning champion Bruno Coelho made it three out of three, Q4 was about deciding how they would line up behind the Xray driver. While Coelho would complete a clean sweep, even surviving clanging his car on the steel boards in the sweeper at the end of the straight, him topping the final qualifier would by default secure Volker the No.2 spot. Volker, winner of 5 of the 7 ETS races held in Hrotovice, would conclude qualifying with a P3 as Viljami Kutvonen broke into the Top 2 although the result changed nothing for the Finn who will start third. On for a potential Top 3 run, last year’s race winner Rheinard would roll his Tamiya on the penultimate lap but the result wouldn’t have changed his starting position and he lines up fourth.
‘Didn’t feel much different to the other qualifier, Bruno was still a bit too fast’, was how Volker summed up the last qualifier adding, ‘I was matching pace with Viljami’. The Yokomo driver continued, ‘we got the car better in terms of it being easy to drive but we need to get more steering for A1 to have a chance’. Feeling the track was now ‘in better condition’, the World Champion felt ‘the track improved and the tyres are improving but the set-up was too conservative for the conditions, but we can fix that for A1’. With team-mates Yugo Nagashima (P8) and Naoki Akiyama (P10) joining him in the finals, the German said, ‘It is great that Naoki and Yugo are also in the A-Main. It’s Yugo’s first ETS race and making the A-Main is a great result’.
‘The plan was to secure 3rd on the grid and beating Ronald that time was a bonus’, said a pleased looking Kutvonen after Q4. Having crashed out of Q3, the Awesomatix driver who will be joined by team-mate Freddy Südhoff (P9) in the A-Main, said, ‘the car is now pretty consistent for the 5-minutes. It’s good now’. Enjoying two podium finishes last season, looking to the first of the triple finals, he said, ‘we’ll just wait and see what happens’.
Not overly frustrated by his late roll, Rheinard said, ‘I was struggling at the beginning and had Alex (Hagberg) behind me so I let him by but then he made a mistake and I was in front of him again. The car started to work pretty ok towards the end but then I went and had a nice roll on the curbing. Even if I didn’t, my overall starting position would have been the same’. Describing the track conditions for the last round as ‘kind of better but still weird’ he said his TRF419 is ‘still hard to drive because it’s loose’ and they ‘need to find something for the final’. Starting behind Rheinard will be his TRF team-mate Akio Sobue who lines up ahead of Hagberg.
In the Xray Pro Stock a very pleased Christian Donath took his first overall ETS TQ. Taking the final qualifier to add to his Q2 topping run the Tamiya driver become the Top Qualifier on the tie breaker with Q1 & 3 pace setter Olivier Bultynck. French driver Alexandre Duchet will line up third ahead of Noah Asendorf as reigning champion Jan Ratheisky completes the top half of the grid. In the Scorpion Power Formula class, David Ehrbar is Top Qualifier. The Serpent designer took a third TQ run in the final qualifier helped by the early exit of Bultynck who broke his Q2 topping Roche 3-laps into the deciding qualifier.
View the complete event results here.
View the event image gallery here.
