Volker tops controlled practice
With official timing finally becoming available with the first round of controlled practice it is Ronald Volker who set pace during the single 5-minute round at the Yokomo Euro Touring Series in Gran Canaria. After issues with the newly resurfaced track that saw much of the day’s practice run as open practice by class, the Team Yokomo driver set the fastest three consecutive laps ahead of Xray’s Adrian Bernsten with team-mate Alexander Hagberg and Serpent’s Marc Fischer sharing identical times to be be third fastest.
Describing his run as ‘solid’, Volker said it was good to finally know where everyone is at. The defending champion, who has been on the island since Tuesday, said the rear end of his LRP powered BD7 was loose but drifting it into the corners he was able to keep up his corner speed. ‘Difficult to drive’ he said at least the pace is good but he said that could easily change for tomorrow’s qualifying, some light rain falling just after he conclusion of the controlled practice. Topping the times comes as a positive for Volker on a day which has seen him been without his famed engineer Yukijiro Umino. Spending the day at the local hospital Umino has been diagnosed with a stomach virus and although now released from the hospital has been given doctors orders to rest which he will do at the holiday home the team have rented for their stay on the island.
Second fastest Berntsen said while he looks good over 3-laps his car is ‘super difficult to drive’ and over 5-minutes his pace is terrible. Feeling tyres were one of the reasons for his T4’s poor consistency he said he also tried a similar set-up to team-mate Hagberg which he didn’t particularly like. The Norwegian plans to go back to his own set-up for the morning’s opening qualifier.
In contrast to Bernsten, Hagberg believes his car is one of the most consistent over the full 5-minutes. Describing his T4’s run to the equal third fastest time as ‘not too bad’, the Swede added its good from the start while his rivals look to struggle for the first few laps. Feel pretty good going into qualifying the Round 2 winner said one point for concern is how quickly track conditions can change.
Fischer echoed Hagberg’s concerns over the changing track saying between the sun & the wind he found conditions to change a lot between runs. Describing his Viper powered S411 as ‘feeling ok’ he added for sure its hard to drive but the ‘ice’ conditions are the same for everyone. Planning no changes to his set-up the German said he is looking forward to qualifying getting underway, drivers now getting 5 rounds with the best two to count.
2012 event winner Christopher Krapp was pleased with his run to the 5th fastest time. The factory Kyosho driver said after a set-up change for the controlled practice run the traction levels he had ‘felt ok’. ‘Missing a little steering’, the German will adjust his rear camber link to reduce rear traction so as to get the TF6 to turn in better. Not pushing hard over the run, Krapp said consistency is going to be key over the 5-minutes of the qualifying rather than outright speed with the wind & keeping the car under control also a big factor.
A good showing from Team Yokomo’s Loic Jasmin saw the French ace set the sixth fastest time ahead of last year’s winner Viktor Wilck. Wilck said his Tamiya ‘feels not so bad’ but a speedo/motor problem meant he lost boost after just three laps. Not sure what caused the fault he will fit fresh electric for qualifying.
Setting the 9th fastest time behind the Xray of Marco Kaufmann, Team Associated’s Juho Levanan described his run as ‘pretty good’. The Finn ran a brand new set of tyres for the first time which he said gave him a little understeer but overall his Reedy powered TC6.2 ‘felt good’. Noticing a lot of drivers are running without swaybars, the former ETS race winner will try this tomorrow leaving the rest of his set-up as is.
Posting the 10th fastest time Marc Rheinard was not at all happy with the situation. Critical of both the track surface and the tyres he said his car felt ‘maximum shit’. Believing much of his problem in the controlled practice was a bad set of tyres he said while conditions are difficult for everyone in left turns he was able to apply some power while turning right it just wanted to slide even with little or no power.
View our event image gallery here.
