Volker fastest in first controlled practice
Ronald Volker has set the fastest time in the opening round of controlled practice at ETS Italy. The Yokomo driver set the fastest 3-consecutive laps of the Riccione track ahead of Marc Rheinard with the big surprise being Viktor Wilck, the Serpent driver going third quickest. Having set the pace over the 7 rounds of free practice from Rheinard & Volker, Bruno Coelho would post the fourth fastest time on the first of the two attempts drivers will have to determine the seeding for qualifying. Returning to racing after a short illness, Viljami Kutvonen would post the 5th fastest time with Nicolas Lee completing the Top 6.
‘It was a decent controlled practice’, was Volker’s reaction after the run with the German adding, ‘3 laps on asphalt doesn’t count for a lot’. Describing that his BD8 ‘felt good over the 4-minutes’, the World Champion continued, ‘we just need to make it more comfortable over the bumps and we are good to go’. Elaborating further he said, ‘the car was bouncing a little too much which cause me to lose the car once so we’ll change the shock set-up for the next one’.
Commenting on his pace, Rheinard said, ‘2nd is not a bad start. I know I messed up my third lap’. The Infinity driver continued, ‘My car felt better in the free practice before but it’s the 5-minutes that is important and overall we have a good base to start with’. Not a huge fan of the track, when asked about its famous bump he replied, ‘its scary, many people are flying off there. You have to go to the outside but the kerb now has no grip because they painted it so it scary every time you go through’.
A while since he featured at the sharp end of the time sheets at an ETS race, Wilck said, ‘for 3-laps its OK but there is still too much drop off’. The Serpent driver said the problem is the car ‘starts to push pretty bad’, adding, ‘for 3-laps I was almost the same pace as Marc but then he could just pull away’. Having exhausted potential cures for the problem yesterday and this morning in free practice, the Swede concluded, ‘we need to do some more thinking’.
Having tried a different set-up on his Xray for the first controlled practice, Coelho said, ‘we didn’t have the right set-up that time but everything will be good for the next one’. Winner here last year, the reigning ETS Champion added, ‘from looking at the lap times I think my car works better than the others but we’ll only see when we start qualifying’. Commenting on the bump, he said, ‘for sure it is worse this year or we are passing faster. On the outside you risk getting on the grass and the inside is the not the right line for the corner. This is going to be what sorts out the big boys, you can get an advantage there or lose everything’.
‘It nice to be back and the sun is shining so everything is good’ was Viljami outlook after CP1. Runner-up behind Coelho here last year, the Awesomatix driver said, ‘I think the car is good but I’m making small driver mistakes all the time’. Describing his A800 as ‘edgy’ for the final free practice, the Finn made changes to cure that for CP1 but this resulted in the car dropping off too much towards the end. For the final controlled practice he said he will go with a set-up in between the two points as well as try to get the driver ‘more dialled in’.
Lee summed up his P6 as ‘OK’ but added it is ‘not so fast just consistent’. Planning to try more set-up changes in final practice, the Yokomo driver said then he would decide what is the best set-up for this evening’s opening qualifier. Suffering with ‘no grip before’ in the morning’s free practice, the Singaporean said changes to get grip were now resulting in his tyres overheating. Behind Lee, Jilles Groskamp would post the 7th fastest time ahead of Infinity team-mate Akio Sobue, this being the Japanese driver’s first time to the track.
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