Coelho Top Qualifier at ETS Italy
Bruno Coelho will make his third pole position start of the season at ETS Italy tomorrow, the Xray driver officially able to celebrate being the Top Qualifier at Round 4 after Ronald Volker topped the final round of qualifying. With the reigning ETS Champion taking a critical TQ run in last night’s opening ‘rocket round’ qualifier and backing it up another in Q2, a TQ run from Elliott Harper in the penultimate round meant there was a theoretical chance the British driver could deny last year’s winner from again starting the Riccione race on pole although beating the Q1 time was always going to be a mammoth challenge. With both Coelho and Harper out of new tyres, it was Volker who had saved his second set of tyres who would take the fourth & final qualifier ahead of Michal Orlowski, the EOS Champion also having the advantage of fresh rubber. With this a crucial weekend for Coelho’s main title rivals, the TQ run will see Volker start from P3 on the grid while Marc Rheinard will try to keep his championship hopes alive from fourth behind Harper.
Picking up another championship point for the TQ to extend his lead in the standings, Coelho said, ‘For sure it is a good to TQ but I can’t say I am 100% confident going into the finals’. Winner of the event here last year having also TQ’d, the Portuguese driver said, ‘the conditions can be different each time or the wind can pick up so its tricky but the car is working very well and if nothing happens I am in a position for tomorrow’. Having suffered a number of offs in the final qualifier, the winner of the season opener and the previous round in Madrid said ‘we made changes for the last one and it was not so good but we will go back to our previous set-up’. Despite posting two TQ runs, both using new tyres, he complained that his T4 was loose in the opening laps. Asked if he managed to improve this, he replied, ‘in Q3 we tried something and it was better so we will go back to that set-up for tomorrow’.
Commenting on his P2 starting position Volker said, ‘to keep my hopes alive for the overall title I have to attack to win this event. Winning is the one and only goal for tomorrow’. Asked about the final qualifier, the Yokomo driver said, ‘My closest rivals had all run out of tyres so my strategy to safe my tyres for the last run worked and let me claim second on the grid but I think the ETS needs to do something on the tyre ruling for outdoor tracks. As you could see there is a big difference between new & used tyres and its just a big tyre gamble’. With the A-Main drivers allocated a new set of tyres for each of the triple finals taking tactics out of the equation, he said, ‘we will do some small changes on the car but I think it will be very difficult to pass especially in the high speed sections. They are very dangerous as I know from the past’ – that a reference to his clash with Coelho here in 2015. Like his rival he said track conditions and the wind will also be a factor adding, ‘we always see some spins especially on new sets of tyres so anything can happen’.
While only 8th in the final qualifier, Harper said, ‘It wasn’t bad for second run tyres. We made small changes then and it (the car) was a bit better’. Equalling his best ETS qualifying result, the Schumacher driver said, ‘I’m petty confident for the finals, the car is consistent the whole run and Michal’s Q4 run showed how much we have improved the car’. Asked his approach for the finals he replied, ‘I will push to see if I can challenge Ronald & Bruno. Marc is starting behind me and he is always racy in the finals plus he is one of the best overtakers but we’ll see what we can do and enjoy it’.
With his car sliding off the track a number of times in the final qualifier, Rheinard said, ‘I think I destroyed my tyres in the previous two rounds because my car was undriveable’. Referring to his fourth on the grid he continued, ‘it not the best position to start, third would have been better but Elliott has pace and he’s fast. Normally I am quicker but I screwed up. For sure it is not what I wanted this weekend’. On his expectations for the finals he concluded, ‘with the bump everything can happen tomorrow’.
Completing the top half of the grid for the A-Main, Jilles Groskamp declared ‘I’m happy with Top 5, its just a pity we have 2 and not 4 cars in the final like in Madrid’. Enjoying his best run in Q3 with a mix of new and used tyres, the Infinity driver tried it again but without the same success. ‘What can I say I did the same as Q3 but spun out on the first lap because I braked a little too late but there was not the same traction as before. Then I spun out and I don’t know why’. He continued, ‘I think the set-up is to critical and if you go over the limit it gets very loose. I will go for a more standard set-up tomorrow. What we have now is fast but not safe and the conditions are changing all the time because of the wind, dust and the fluff (tree seeds) so I think a more safe set-up is the best way’. Behind Groskamp, Serpent’s Viktor Wilck will make his first A-Main appearance of the season from 6th on the grid.
In Pro Stock, it is last year’s winner Mattia Collina who will start on pole. The Italian TQ’d his home race when he put his Xray at the top of the timesheets for a second time in the final qualifier. With a TQ a piece, Max Machler and Martin Hofer will line up 2nd and 3rd respectively with ETS Czech and Spain winner lining up fourth. In Formula, David Ehrbar took his third TQ of the season when he set the pace for the third time in the final qualifier to deny Champion Jan Ratheisky, with Matej Dobnikar completing the Top 3 ahead of Jitse Miedema and Olivier Bultynck.
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