Volker tops Q3 from Coelho
Ronald Volker has posted a second TQ run at ETS Luxembourg, the Yokomo driver topping Q3 from Bruno Coelho after the Xray driver found himself blocked by Volker’s team-mate Meen Vejrak as the qualifier entered the final minute. Backing up his strong Q2 performance, HB’s Jilles Groskamp completed the Top 3 ahead of Serpent’s Marc Fischer. Having not featured so far on this his first visit to Mini Circuit “Ville de Luxembourg”, World Champion Naoto Matsukura would finally put together a half competitive penultimate qualifier to set the 5th fastest time.
Describing Q3 as ‘a must win run’ due to the fact he was on his second set of RIDE tyres, Volker said he was pleased to have two TQ results as it puts the pressure now on Alexander Hagberg, his only rival for the overall TQ and the bonus championship point that goes with it. Aware that Xray had its drivers on new tyres he said despite his LRP powered BD7 lacking steering he knew he ‘had to win’. With Hagberg having the fastest time from TQ in Q1, Volker said he would be going into the final qualifier fighting for a third TQ run so as his rival wouldn’t get to use the tie breaker. While the track was ‘slightly better’ than in Q2, the temperatures not as cold and the wind not as strong as earlier, Volker believes that while it might improve again for the last run the overall conditions won’t improve enough to post a faster time than Hagberg’s.
‘I don’t know what he was thinking’, that was Coelho’s reaction to Meen blocking him in the track’s ‘Laguna Seca’ section. The Portuguese driver continued ‘ Prumper opened but Meen didn’t and I ended up crashing into him, what is that about’. With his T4 doing a donut following the contact, the World Championship runner-up would lose over 1.5 seconds saying ‘my car was super perfect and I would have made TQ easy without this (incident)’. On new tyres Coelho would post the fastest lap of the round. In contrast his team-mate, setting the 8th fastest time Hagberg said his ‘car was close to undrivable’. With his T4 going from ‘perfect to terrible’ the nitro touring car World Champion said he can only hope it’s due to a bad set of tyres. For the final qualifier he will revert to the same set of tyres he used to take Q1.
‘Not bad but Ronald was a bit faster than before’, was how Groskamp summed up his latest qualifier. Really happy to lock in a starting position towards the front of the A-Main grid, he said his performance on 3rd run tyres was just a consistent one. Armed with a new set of tyres for the last qualifier, he said he has a feeling old tyres might actually be faster after talking to his rivals with most reporting new tyres as loose.
Running in the second fastest heat, Fischer said his S411 feels good and while happy to get fourth when he ‘knows it could have been a better result it’s not so nice’. The German was referencing to his incident with Schumacher’s Michal Orlowski. Getting caught up in an off the talented Polish driver had, Fischer said with the car facing the wrong way on the track he made head on contact with it and spun out costing him 2-seconds. Confident as ‘the speed is there’ he continued ‘hopefully for the last one I will also have a bit more luck to go with it’. Team-mate Viktor Wilck would again suffer a spin but on his second set of tyres he pulled off to save them for the last run.
Making ‘maximum changes’ to the set-up of his TRF419, Matsukura said the car was ‘now good’ having been ‘shit’ in the opening two qualifiers. Using his second set of tyres for the run, the Japanese driver said he could still do with more traction and steering but hopefully they can make a further step forward for the last qualifier and secure his first ETS A-main start with the Tamiya Racing Factory team. His first time at the track he said ‘if it had more traction it would be more fun’.
Running his first Top 10 time, Schumacher’s Elliot Harper would complete the Top 6. The British driver described his car as ‘not bad’ adding it was a ‘nice consistent run’ in which he ‘didn’t hit any curbs’. Thanking team-mates Aaron Rose & Andy Murray for their input, the fifth Round of the ETS attracting a huge UK entry, he said having changed set-up for Q2 it was not the best and he has gone back to an earlier set-up. Saying he needs more steering he said he hasn’t figured out yet what but he will make a set-up adjustment for the final qualifier which sitting 12th in the qualification ranking could turn around his event.
One of the stars of last year’s event with his Team Magic, Leo Arnold would post the 7th fastest time. Running new tyres in Q2 he was on target for a Top 4 time until he stripped a belt in the final minute. A big fan of the track, the very capable 1:10 nitro racer who is a strong runner in the Euro Nitro Series said his car is good especially on used tyres and he just needs one more good qualifier to replicate his A-Main appearance again this year.
In the Xray Pro-Stock class, Danish Schumacher driver Nicolai Lindegaard took a surprise TQ run in Q3 ahead of Serpent’s Julian Borowski with defending champion Marek Cerny completing the Top 3. It was a bad round for Q1 pace setter Nico Catelani as he went out after just a lap while title hopefully Lars Hoppe also had a tough round as he finished outside the Top 10. In Formula, the Top 3 was a repeat of Q2 as Olivier Bultynck posted another TQ run ahead of David Ehrbar and Mike Gosvig. Champion Jan Ratheisky would post the 4th fastest time after losing time on his second lap.
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