Volker tops seeding at ETS Italy
Ronald Volker is the top seed for the Yokomo Euro Touring Series in Italy. Having set the fastest time in the opening controlled practice, the Yokomo driver bettered his time in the second round when wind caused many drivers, including Volker, issues. Behind the World Champion, Jilles Groskamp would find a big improvement over his opening practice to set the second fastest time to demote his Infinity team-mate Marc Rheinard to third. With Rheinard and Viktor Wilck failing to go quicker in the final practice, Akio Sobue would be the next driver to improve going from P8 in CP1 to P5. The Japanese driver’s improvement would drop last year’s winner Bruno Coelho to sixth, the Xray driver believing additive is the reason for him being off the pace.
‘They were difficult track conditions, a huge wind picked up in the run. I could see cars spinning off and had two spins myself. I actually thought it was raining’, said Volker after the final practice. With a noticeable drop in temperature as the clouds set in, the German continued, ‘My car is still not easy to drive but it looked like I was not the only one with that problem. Of course it is good to be at the top of the times for now but it is the 5-minutes that’s going to count’. Having changed his car after feeling it was ‘bouncing too much’ in CP1, he said while its still not perfect he will stick with his latest set-up for Q1 tonight to get a feel for how it works in the expected colder conditions.
Improving his 3-lap pace by over 6/10ths of a second, Groskamp said the improvement came from a shock spring change. The Infinity driver said, ‘The car feels good now. I didn’t know it was so fast and was kind of surprised when I saw the times’. Having been happy with the 5-minute pace of his IF14 in practice, he said now he had also found 3-lap pace which was ‘nice’ going to into the first qualifier. He added ‘it’s going to be tricky to complete the 5-minutes because that time suddenly everyone was spinning out in the second half of the run. I think it was because of the wind, but it got super loose’. Happy with his car, the former World Champion plans to run it unchanged for Q1.
‘I struggled a bit in the last the controlled practice but it was a good for the team as we ended up with 4 cars in the Top 10’, was Rheinard’s reaction after CP2. The ETS Spain runner-up continued, ‘my car felt loose, there was a little more wind so it was not easy’. Having refreshed the shocks on his Muchmore powered IF14 before the final practice, he plans to run the car as is for the first qualifier. Having also failed to improve his time, when asked about his run Wilck replied, ‘my idea didn’t work, it felt almost the same. It was still just pushing. I will just try to get a 5-minute run in and see where it puts me’.
Also making a shock set-up change to his Infinity, Sobue said while it was an improvement on CP1 the car is ‘still loose’ and ‘still needs more steering’ admitting the wind affected the car. Still not a fan of the Riccione track, describing it as ‘too bumpy’, the first time visitor plans to make ‘small set-up changes’ to try get a more consistent car for Q1. He said, ‘If you make one mistake you end up with dust on the tyres so its better to go with a safe set-up and get a clean 5-minutes’.
Having set the pace in Free Practice, Coelho said, ‘I was first and now 6th. Before I was running shop bought additive and now we have switched to the race additive but I have zero traction’. The Xray driver continued, ‘for the first few laps the car is lost on the track and my laps times are the same as the times I set at the end of the run. They should be opposite, fast at the start and slower at the end. The car is good, it is just the additive and we need to find out what is the problem’.
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