Coelho claims 5th TQ of ETS Season
Bruno Coelho has claimed his 5th overall TQ of the season at the Yokomo Euro Touring Series season finale in Slovakia. Having already successfully defended his ETS title at the previous round in Apeldoorn, the Xray driver wrapped up the overall TQ at Hudy Arena in somewhat impressive style. Having led a 1-2 for his team in both qualifier’s yesterday, Q3 would see him spin off towards the end of the straight and need to be marshalled after ending up on the grass. Despite dropping 3-seconds as a result of the second lap incident, he could still recover from the lost time and top the round from by almost two seconds from Marc Rheinard who was the next fastest driver in the top heat. Overall for the round it would be Viktor Wilck, running in the second fastest heat which had the benefit of slightly less sunny conditions, who would finish P2 ahead of Rheinard with Ronald Volker fourth – 3rd to 6th for the round covered by less than 3/10ths.
Explaining his off, Coelho said, ‘I had a body tuck which caught the tyre and I spun out. I think maybe it (the body tuck) was from the wind. Luckily I didn’t crash and hit anything’. He continued, ‘the car felt very good and that is why I continued. I pushed maximum to get back to the point so it worked out perfect’. Describing his car as ‘amazing’, the Portuguese ace said, ‘today we prove it again how good our car is. It is not just because it is our home track. We did the same in Apeldoorn and I had never been there before. I’m lucking forward to the finals’.
‘Not bad, just a clean run’, was Wilck’s reaction to his P2 run adding ‘yesterday would have been a good run but I rolled on the curb’. Using up his third and final set of tyres, the Swede said, ‘maybe I got lucky the last heat had more sun than us but the times are very close for the second group at least’ – this a reference to Xray and in particular Bruno’s huge advantage over the rest of the Modified field. Sitting third in the qualification ranking behind the two Xray’s but with no new tyres for the final qualifier, the Serpent driver concluded, ‘I just have to wait and see because Yannic (Prumper) and Akio (Sobue) still have new sets (of tyres)’.
Rheinard summed up his best run so far by saying, ‘at least I’m now in the A-Main’. The Infinity driver, who is the only other driver to register a TQ this season when he took pole at the opening round, continued, ‘everyone has the same speed on new tyres except Bruno. He goes 3-seconds on the grass and still takes it by 2-seconds. They have found something on new tyres’. Holding fifth on the grid but also using up his third set if tyres, the German said, ‘I guess I will drop some spots (in the final grid order) but the guys with new tyres have to finish the run so lets see what happens’.
Another driver posting his best qualifying so far, Volker said, ‘I could have been better. It is very close between P3 and P6 and fourth is surely not what I wanted’. The Yokomo driver continued, ‘I was on used tyres in Q2 so for the hot weather today I have 2-times new tyres which should be to my advantage. I can still go P3 on the grid but it will be difficult’.
Setting the fifth fastest time, Michal Orlowski said, ‘I didn’t have a very good start. I had a rough first lap but then I was able to put in good laps. I had a couple more bad laps and overshot the carrousel so I’m glad to get 5th’. A driver who is nowadays better known as one of the best electric offroad racers in the World and who is double champion of the Euro Offroad Series, the Pole continued, ‘I should be in the A-Main and I still have one set of tyres for the last one so maybe I can go up the grid’.
Having his worst qualifying run so far, Krapp took full responsibility for the performance summing up Q3 with ‘shit driving, I threw away 3rd’. The Yokomo driver continued, ‘the car is actually ok but the Xray is in a different World. Bruno was in front of me (after his off) and pulled away. I felt like a beginner. My focus now is to be best of the rest’.
In Pro Stock Nico Catelani would become the third different driver to top the times. His first outdoor ETS of the season, the Italian Xray driver was quickest from the Awesomatix of Olivier Bultynck with Jan Ratheisky third. Having taken the opening qualifier Alexandre Duchet ran a P4 time to remain in provisional pole. In Formula Bultynck continued to reign as he wrapped up the overall TQ with another heat win. Behind the Shepherd driver, Matej Dobnikar set the second fastest time with Britain Luke Lee third. Christian Drießle livened up the 40+ title fight as he took Q3 as championship points leader Thomas Oehler hit trouble and was a DNF. The other title contender, Beni Stutz also got a DNF for the round.
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