Volker tops Q3 from Fischer
Ronald Volker claimed his first TQ run in the third round of qualifying at the ETS in Austria after a close fought battle with Serpent’s Marc Fischer, the latter loosing out by 4/10ths after a number of rough laps including one which saw him make a good save when his S411 got up on two wheels just after passing Yannic Prumper. With the Top 2 on new tyres, Marc Rheinard was the fastest driver on used rubber setting an impressive pace to claim third which should be enough to ensure the Tamiya driver will be Top Qualifier.
‘An important TQ run’ was how Volker summed up Q3. The defending champion said following his Q1 moment, when his car traction rolled costing him the TQ for that round, he started off a little too smooth. With Fischer announced as running the predicted TQ pace, the Yokomo ace said he had to push harder but compared to yesterday his BD7 which, while it had slight understeer, overall was a lot safer to drive than yesterday. Impressed by the pace of Rheinard on used tyres, his great rival only 7/10th off at the end of the 5-minutes, Volker who is realistic about his chances now of taking the overall TQ honours said he hoped he could match the Tamiya driver’s pace in Q4.
Setting the fastest lap, Fischer was pleased with his pace admitting himself that he got lucky to get away with not rolling adding that the quick reactions of Prumper helped as most other drivers would most likely have tipped his car over. After a disappointing Q2 run when he was on used tyres, Fischer said that was more down to the cold conditions of the early morning run rather than the tyres and he is confident that Q4 should be OK with his main target to get a Top 6 finish and book himself a place in the final. Once he has that done he said he can take bigger risks in the final two qualifiers.
Rheinard, who used the same set of tyres from Q2 after opting not to match his two used sets, said he was surprised at how good his Much More powered TRF417 was on used tyres. More comfortable with the traction in Q3, as a result of higher temperatures, Rheinard believes it will be difficult now for Volker to take the overall TQ as Prumper and Alexander Hagberg both still have a fresh set of tyres meaning they will most likely TQ one of the remaining rounds. Using his second set of fresh Ride tyres in Q3, Viktor Wilck enjoyed his best round setting the fourth fastest time but comparing like for like the Swede is still someway off the pace and is likely to see his championship aspirations end this weekend.
Running his first set of tyres for a third time, Hagberg said he did what he could with the tyres and claiming fifth for the round he was very happy with the result. Pleased with how his ORCA powered T4 is working on used tyres he said he now just needs to decide on when is the right time to run his second set of allocated tyres.
Matching up his two used sets of tyres and opting to run a front/front combination, Andy Moore said his TCXX worked a lot better than expected. With the Rear/Rear combination in theory offering better performance the factory HB driver said he is feeling pretty confident he can put in one more strong run to add to his second fastest times set in Q1 & Q2.
Behind Moore, Eric Dankel managed his first clean round to set the 7th fastest time 46/1000th ahead of the Awesomatix of Freddy Sudhoff with Martin Hudy and Prumper completing the Top 10.
In the Xray Pro Stock class, Xray team driver Marek Cerny claimed a second TQ run ahead of Q1 pace setter Viljami Kutvonen, the Awesomatix driver setting the fastest lap. Tobias Vogel completed the Top 3 ahead of Schumacher team driver & former Champion Martin Hofer. For defending champion Zdenko Kunak a DNF looks like the end of the road for the Slovak drivers hopes of retaining his title.
In the Speed Passion Formula class Serpent team driver Jan Asmer TQ’d the third qualifier ahead of reigning champion Herbert Weber while Q1 & Q2 pace setter Roman Pichler had a tough run setting only the 7th fastest time.
Ride Modified Q3 times
1. Ronald Völker – Yokomo – 21/5:12.832
2. Marc Fischer – Serpent – 21/5:13.289
3. Marc Rheinard – Tamiya – 21/5:13.589
4. Viktor Wilck – Tamiya – 20/5:02.280
5. Alexander Hagberg – Xray – 20/5:04.034
6. Andy Moore – HB – 20/5:04.120
7. Eric Dankel – Yokomo – 20/5:04.949
8. Freddy Südhoff – Awesomatix – 20/5:04.995
9. Martin Hudy – Xray – 20/5:06.769
10.Yannic Prümper – Yokomo – 20/5:06.821
Xray Pro Stock Q3 times
1. Marek Cerny – Xray – 19/5:08.876
2. Viljami Kutvonen – Awesomatix – 19/5:09.172
3. Tobias Vogel – Xray – 19/5:12.561
4. Martin Hofer – Schumacher – 19/5:12.602
5. Jan Asmer – Serpent – 19/5:13.095
6. Oliver Franke – HB – 19/5:13.142
7. David Nemcek – Xray – 19/5:13.337
8. Valetin Hettrich – Xray – 19/5:14.466
9. Henrik Heitsch – ARC – 19/5:14.897
10.Bernhard Bopp – HB – 19/5:15.095
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