Krapp is Top Qualifier at ETS Gran Canaria
Factory Kyosho driver Christopher Krapp is Top Qualifier for the third round of the Yokomo Euro Touring Series in the Spanish island of Grand Canaria after the 19-year-old German took the final round of qualifying to deny Xray’s Alexander Hagberg the honour on tie break. Each posting two TQ runs during the fifth rounds of qualifying, Krapp’s Q1 performance, which was the fastest 5-minute run of the day, secured the World finalist his first & Kyosho’s second ETS pole position in the A-Main of the premiere class.
The final qualifier was expected to be a shootout between Krapp and Hot Bodies’ Andy Moore as both drivers had brand new tyres but three laps in the 2006 World Champion got it wrong at the end of the straight. Although he set the fastest lap of the round Moore opted to pull up and save his tyres for tomorrow’s finals in which he will start 5th. This looked to leave the way open for Krapp, but despite running on tyres he already used to top Q4 Hagberg was able to mount a serious challenge. Also chasing his first ever ETS pole position, the Swede was running very close on time with Krapp but on the final lap flipped his T3 2012 coming onto the main straight. Although the car land rubber side down Krapp took the round ahead of Ronald Volker to lay claim to the No.1 start number in tomorrow’s final.
‘Super Happy’ to be the first Kyosho Top Qualifier since Steen Graversen was on pole position for the first ever ETS race back in 2007, afterwards Krapp said he was surprised at how close it was between him and Hagberg but added he never paniced as he knew his car was good enough on new tyres to get the job done. Asked about tomorrow’s racing the World Finalist, who if he wins will be the first Kyosho driver to win an ETS race, said he just plans to keep his head down and give the best he can.
Hagberg said he was still very happy to be second on the grid after what was his best ETS qualifying performance. Having last month bagged his first big international race win when he won the Snowbirds in the US, he said he is confident he can race for the win and feels he has an advantage in that his car is still very competitive on the tyres’ second run as he showed this evening in the final qualifier.
Ronald Volker, who has seen his domination of the 2011/12 season halted this weekend, will start the A-Main from third on the grid. The reigning champion, who won the opening two rounds of this season’s series from pole position said is going to be tough race tomorrow and beating Krapp and Hagberg is going to be difficult. The German ace said his problem is in the later part of the runs as he is unable to match the pace of his rivals who just seem to get faster over the 5-minutes.
Behind the Top 3 a very fed-up looking Marc Rheinard starts fourth. Despite TQ’ing the third qualifier due solely to the fact he ran fresh rubber when all the other teams stuck with their first set of tyres, the World Champion is not really at the races here in Gran Canaria but in a rare occurance the former ETS champion has stayed on after qualifying to take part in open practice.
In the Xray Pro Stock class five different drivers claimed TQ runs and in the end a tie-break was also needed to determine who was Top Qualifier with Marek Cerný claiming Yokomo’s first pole position in the series’ biggest class ahead of defending champion and factory Schumacher driver Martin Hofer. Having made his first A-Main at Round 2 in Italy, former Hobby class champion Michal Orlowski will line-up third on the grid with his Tamiya ahead of the other local drivers Javier Martinez and Toni Mateo, the man responsible for bringing the ETS to Gran Canaria. In the Speed Passion formula class, Italian driver Maurizio Taddei is the top qualifier from Germany’s Andreas Mundt.
Ride Modified A-Main Grid
1. Christopher Krapp (DE) – Kyosho/Orion – 310
2. Alexander Hagberg (SE) – Xray/ORCA – 310
3. Ronald Völker (DE) – Yokomo/LRP – 306
4. Marc Rheinard (DE) – Tamiya/Speed Passion – 305
5. Andy Moore (GB) – Hot Bodies/HPI Flux – 305
6. Elliott Harper (GB) – Tamiya/Orion – 304
7. Viktor Wilck (SE) – Tamiya/Thunder Power – 304
8. Steen Graversen (DK) – Awesomatix/Thunder Power – 302
9. Chris Grainger (GB) – Schumacher/GM – 298
10.Eric Dankel (DE) – Yokomo/LRP – 297
Xray Pro-Stock A-Main Grid
1. Marek Cerný (CZ) – Yokomo – 308
2. Martin Hofer (DE) – Schumacher – 308
3. Michal Orlowski (PL) – Tamiya – 307
4. Javier Martinez (GC) – Hot Bodies – 307
5. Toni Mateo (ES) – Tamiya – 306
6. Tony Streit (DE) – Xray – 306
7. Ivan Laptev (RU) – Awesomatix – 304
8. Carsten Madsen (DK) – Awesomatix – 303
9. Felix Wiessmann (DE) – Yokomo – 298
10.Alvaro Fernandez (ES) – Tamiya – 296
View the complete results here.
View the event image gallery here.
