Rheinard ends two year drought with first Infinity TQ at ETS Austria
Marc Rheinard has ended a 2-year TQ drought by claiming his first pole position start of the Yokomo Euro Touring Series since 2015. Last securing pole at the Season #9 opener in the Czech Republic in 2015 he became Top Qualifier for the 13th time today in Vienna when he made it three out of three at the top of the time sheets in the penultimate round of qualifying. Claiming the first championship point of the season, the TQ marks the first for Infinity as the German driver and Japanese manufacturer embark on their first full ETS championship campaign.
‘How long has it been’, was Rheinard’s reaction after locking in pole by taking Q3 ahead of Bruno Coelho. He continued, ‘I didn’t expect to TQ when we came here especially after the first practice run but we worked on it and it got better’. Switching to his second set of tyres for the round, he said, ‘the feeling of the car was not the same as before but the balance was still good’. Denying Coelho the chance of taking the TQ fight to the fourth & final qualifier by half a second, again setting the fastest lap, the former ETS Champion said, ‘we need to see who will start second but I’m comfortable with the car while others are struggling with theirs and like I said before I have a good car for 5-minutes’.
Having set the pace in practice but clearly having lost form since the start of qualifying Coelho said, ‘we are still trying to find the problem with the car’. Crashing on the opening lap of each of the first two qualifiers, the reigning champion would have a clean Q3 but he is still not happy with his car. He said, ‘we were super fast in practice but now the car is losing the rear and we are still trying to find out the problem’. Switching around his tyres for Q3, he said while it made the car ‘a little better’ overall the car is still the same so they haven’t yet problem.
‘Great’ was how Marco Kaufmann described another impressive run to the 3rd fastest time. The German driver continued, ‘I don’t think I was ever so close in the ETS before as this to a TQ run’, him holding the second fastest pace behind Rheinard for much of the qualifier. With a strong grid position locked in with his pair of P3 runs, he said for his final attempt he will ‘give everything in the last one to try for a TQ’, adding ‘I have nothing to lose’. He concluded, ‘I just want to enjoy the weekend now and have a good race’.
Posting the fourth fastest time, Viljami Kutvonen said, ‘I hit the boards 4 times, I don’t know how I survived to finish’. The Awesomatix driver explained his incidents by saying, ‘I think it was just me, I pushed too hard. The car is good without pushing’. For the final qualifier, as he tries to protect his current second place in the qualification ranking, he said, ‘I will just make sure I didn’t break anything on the car and then try to drive it a bit better’.
‘OK’ was Alexander’s Hagberg reply when ask how he felt his latest qualifier went. The Swede continued, ‘we don’t have the set-up to go fast and we are not sure what to do yet’. While his best of the three qualifiers, he concluded, ‘the car is not quick enough to fight for the TQ so we have to find something for the last round’.
‘I’m just happy to be back in the A-Main first off all. I’m happy to be back in the mix’, was how Christopher Krapp summed up his sixth for Q3. The best placed Yokomo driver with both Ronald Volker and Naoki Akiyama having errors with Volker pulling off as he struggled with his car, Krapp said with his car lazy in Q2 a set-up change improved it for the latest run. While pleased with his BD8 he was less complimentary of his own driving saying, ‘I am not 100% happy with my driving. I made a stupid mistake and kissed the boards which cost me 1-second so I will try getting the right lines in the next one’. Behind the German, Yannic Prumper took his privately entered Infinity to P7 ahead of factory driver Akio Sobue with Serpent’s Viktor Wilck 9th in front of Akiyama.
View the complete event results here.
View our event image gallery here.
