Krapp TQs first qualifier in Gran Canaria
Kyosho’s Christopher Krapp has TQ’d the opening round of qualifying at the third round of the Yokomo Euro Touring Series in Gran Canaria bringing Champion Ronald Volker’s domination of qualifying this season to an end. Driving his TF6-SP, the young German driver took the first of the five rounds of qualifying at the outdoor asphalt track by just over half a second from Volker with Viktor Wilck setting the third fastest time.
Currently third in the ETS point standings, Krapp was delighted to take his second ever TQ run in the ETS saying this time round it was done on proper pace rather than his rivals hitting problems. Confident his Orion powered Kyosho would perform better on asphalt than on carpet, he said he did not expect it be as good as it was for Q1. Once he noticed he was able to match Wilck’s pace, who started ahead of him, he said he pushed hard and the end result was ‘a really good run’. For Q2 the Worlds Finalist said he wont be making any changes to his set-up as the car is working really well and it just needs the driver to deliver the results.
Volker said he was simply outpaced by Krapp as it was a clean run and he was driving as hard as he could. Complimenting his fellow German on his performance, adding he deserved the TQ run, the Yokomo ace said he wasn’t too disappointed by his own performance as this was the first time everyone was running at the same time on new sets of the Ride controlled tyre and that was a true indication of everyone’s pace. With conditions at the track much colder today Volker said he will talk to his engineer Umino about trying a slightly different tyre prep for Q2.
Tamiya Racing Factory’s Wilck said his TRF417 was good at the beginning with a good level of traction but in the second half of the 5-minute run it started sliding about. Planning to try a different tyre prep, the Swede will also make some small front roll centre changes.
Steen Graversen was very happy with his Awesomatix in the opening qualifier as he took the A700 to the fourth fastest time. Now one of the few remaining veteran’s of electric touring car racing and one of the oldest leading drivers, when asked if he had an issues with his car in Q1 the Dane replied that the car was fine and the only problem is that ‘the driver is getting older and older’.
Flipping his Xray T3 2012 after the first run down the long straight, Alexander Hagberg said the car was really good but he couldn’t recover from the early mistake. Taking fifth for the round the Snowbirds Champion said the car is good for at least a Top 3 time and he will be running it as it is in Q2.
Completing the Top 6, former World Champion Andy Moore said his car felt completely different to yesterday. The Hot Bodies driver was happy with the balance of his Hot Bodies pre production TCXX but said it just didn’t have enough overall traction. The current British Champion will switch to a lighter shock oil for Q2.
Elsewhere World Champion Marc Rheinard could only manage the 8th fastest time behind Tamiya team-mate Elliot Harper, while Yokomo drivers Olivier Bultynck and Eric Dankel completed the Top 10. setting the 11th fastest time Team Associated’s Juho Levanen said after his run that if he had been driving around the track on his own he would have reported that his TC6.1 felt pretty good but with in the top heat he said he could visually see he has work to do. Team-mate Keven Hebert, who ended up 15th, reported a lack of rear traction and will try a completely different set-up for Q2.
In the Xray Pro Stock class Czech driver Marek Cerný produced his first ever TQ run with his Yokomo topping Q1 ahead of the Awesomatix of two time race winner Ivan Laptev and German Xray driver Tony Streit.
View the complete results here.
View the event image gallery here.
