Coelho unchallenged in A1
Bruno Coelho took an unchallenged tone to tone win in a re-run of the opening A-Main at the Yokomo Euro Touring Series Season Finale in Slovakia this morning. Originally scheduled for yesterday but stopped half way through when it started to rain and the rest of the day was cancelled, drivers faced an earlier than usual 08:30 but starting from the TQ it didn’t cause the newly crowned Champion any issues as he took the win over Ronald Volker by over 1-second. For a time it looked like Coelho’s Xray team-mate Alexander Hagberg might make a race of A1 but the Swede came undone with the first of two mistakes at the same point on the track. First allowing Volker through to second, the second error allowed Christopher Krapp through to complete the Top 3 with an incident on the last lap dropping Hagberg to 9th.
Looking to cap off his 4 consecutive title with a fourth win of the Season, reacting to A1 Coelho said, ‘It was an OK final. I had mistake on the 4th lap, it wasn’t really a mistake but a bad feeling and I lost the rear. Maybe it was a wet spot or something but I was able to get the pace back again and pull away from Alex before he had a mistake’. Asked about the tyres, all drivers having to hand in their remaining 2 new sets to ensure they ran the same tyres as in the aborted A1 run yesterday, the World Champion said, ‘running used tyres was the fair thing to do because everyone will be on new tyres for the next two’. Only the fifth final to run on the reverse direction Hudy Arena track this morning after yesterday’s rain, the Portuguese ace concluded, ‘I think the track will be better for the next one’.
Summing up the opening A-Main, Volker said, ‘I didn’t have much rear grip in the opening laps and lost contact with the two ahead of me. Then once I closed in on Alex he rolled and I just tried hard to caught Bruno but we had the same speed and the last 3-minutes the gap stayed the same’. Looking to A2, the Yokomo driver said, ‘We still need to judge the track condition. There should be more traction and it should also be warmer’.
‘A lucky run’ was how Krapp described his race. Starting from 5th on the grid, he continued, ‘I got by Lucas (Urbain) at some point and then Hagberg crashed unfortunately so I took 3rd. For two laps I had some pressure from Elliot (Harper) but in the end I was safe. The traction improved in the run but the line was fine and I got my line wrong which allowed Elliot to close on me’. He concluded, ‘the car felt a little better so I hope I can try and squeeze a podium maybe’. At the finish the Yokomo driver had 1-second in hand over Harper with Loic Jasmin completing the Top 5.
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