Sudhoff hits the top in Q3
Freddy Sudhoff finally delivered on the TQ potential he showed but was denied in the opening two qualifiers, when the Awesomatix driver became the third different driver to top the qualifying times at Round 2 of the Euro Touring Series in Germany. Sudhoff was again the only one to take the challenge to the Xray team, this time however he only had to contend with Bruno Coelho as Alexander Hagberg didn’t have the pace that saw him take Q2. Unfortunately for Coelho having successfully found a way by traffic the same car would run into the back of him in one of the track’s many 180 degree corners costing the Q1 pace setter almost a second and allowing Sudhoff some breathing room to bring home the TQ run. Despite a second incident of his own doing on the final lap in which he rolled his car, Coelho would get a second for the round albeit over 2-seconds off Sudhoff. Hagberg would get a P3 from the round with Yannic Prumper backing up the first run of the day as best of the rest to post another P4 ahead of former World Champions Ronald Volker and Marc Rheinard.
A very pleased Sudhoff summed up his Q3 TQ run with, ‘Third time lucky’. The German, who is chasing after his first ever ETS win, added, ‘we changed the car a little to get more steering but I think the track is slower and that was causing more push’. Acknowledging, ‘Bruno had bad luck with a back marker’, and having had some very slight errors in Q1 & 2, he said, ‘It was a completely clean. It was my best run from a driving point of view’. In the hunt for his first ever ETS overall TQ going into the final qualifier he concluded, ‘the thing we changed felt weird so we need to decide if we change something else for the last one but my confidence is there as I did the 5-minutes without any mistake’.
Asked his thoughts on his run, Coelho replied, ‘Let’s say I was just unlucky’. Sharing Sudhoff’s commenting on the track, the Portuguese driver said, ‘I think the track was slower and more loose. I think because it was more hot in the hall’. Making changes to his T4 for the round he said ‘the car was better for sure’ but they planned more changes for the deciding qualifier.
Hagberg wasn’t happy about his lack of pace to contend for a second TQ run. The Swede said, ‘I had a clean run. I didn’t touch the car, I just switched to my other set of tyres to have both sets with equal amount of runs of them but I lost 3-seconds out of one set of tyres’. He added, ‘I will revert to my other tyres for the last one because this set just didn’t have the grip of the other set’.
Best of the Infinity team once again, Prumper said, ‘I used a completely different car, this one had a softer chassis’. The multiple ETS race winner continued, ‘the two cars feel much the same but this one was easier to drive at the chicane but on other parts was more difficult so I don’t know what to do’.
Yokomo driver Volker said, ‘the car was now similar to Q1 and I almost got another 3rd. I just missed out by a couple of tenths but overall I’m fourth so basically best of the rest. The Top 3 are a different pace’. Having tried changes for Q2 that left him with a complete lack of pace, the German said, ‘we will do more changes for the next one. We need to find more rotation without upsetting the balance. In the last one my best lap was one of the slowest of the heat’.
While it is still all to play for in terms of the Volante Modified overall TQ, the first to secure TQ honours in Daun has gone to Alexander Stocker. Taking the TQ and overall win in the Infinity 40+ Masters class at the season opener in Vienna, the former Pro Stock champion made it another TQ run in the third round to secure pole for tomorrow’s triple A-Mains. In Formula, Jan Ratheisky backed up his Q2 result for a second TQ run, this time ahead of Olivier Bultynck with David Ehrbar, Ratheisky’s only challenger for the TQ going into the final round, third.
In Pro Stock, Max Machler was obviously spurred on by Sudhoff’s performance in Modified, with the Awesomatix Team Manager topping Q3 just ahead of Xray’s Leo Arnold who took the previous qualifier. Topping the opening qualifier Ratheisky completed the Top 3 with everything up for grabs in the fourth & final round of qualifying. In 17.5 Stock, Daniel Pöhlmann became the third different driver to top the times when the ETS Vienna winner took it from Alexander Müller and Alojzij Osvald.
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