Volker claims 16th ETS TQ in Italy
On the return of the Yokomo Euro Touring Series to Italy it is Ronald Volker who will start on pole position, the Yokomo driver claiming his 16th overall TQ of the championship at the Road Race Riccione RC Circuit Marco Simoncelli. With only Bruno Coelho a possible challenger to the defending ETS champion becoming Top Qualifier at the third round of the championship, a mistake by the Xray driver in the fourth & final qualifier allowed Volker to record his third TQ run of the weekend. Despite losing over 3-seconds, Coelho would still post the second fastest time and the only driver to truly challenge Volker this weekend he will start his first asphalt ETS appearance from 2nd on the grid setting the stage for an exciting head to head dual in tomorrow’s triple A-Mains. Having come into the weekend as joint leader of the championship with Marc Rheinard, Volker moves one point ahead now and with his arch rival starting fifth that advantage looks likely to grow. While Rheinard had his best round in Q4 recording his only Top 3 run the same couldn’t be said for his new team-mate & reigning World Champion Naoto Matsukura and the Japanese ace will line-up on the B-Main grid on his TRF debut in the ETS.
Confident Coelho would not be able to better his Q1 in order to deny him the overall TQ, Volker used the final qualifier to test a set-up change and despite being on used tyres said his LRP powered BD7 was better than the previous run on new tyres. With better overall balance the German said he was able to push harder pointing out that despite Coelho, who started directly behind him, being on new tyres the Portuguese driver was only closing the gap a little until his error. Looking to tomorrow’s finals he said he hoped he could bring home the win but added it wont be easy as he expects Coelho to push even harder than he did in qualifying. His first TQ start since winning the his fourth title in Luxembourg last season, when asked about the track for racing he said normally big tracks are not good but here there are 2 or 3 spots where a different line is possible which could be used to set-up a pass on the exit of the corner.
‘Car was super fast & super good but I made a mistake’, was Coelho’s take on the closing qualifier. Last October’s World Championship runner-up, the 21-year-old is very confident for the finals saying ‘for sure I can fight with Ronald (Volker)’ for the win. His first ETS race on asphalt, he said he has the car to win and he will leave his LRP powered T4 unchanged adding ‘it is just down to him to drive it tomorrow’.
Starting third on the grid will be Yannic Prumper. While the Yokomo driver didn’t get to make the most of his second set of tyres in the final qualifier suffering a spin out on lap 4, the German is ‘quite confident’ for tomorrow. Having suffered a boost problem in Q3 a call to Muchmore’s Mr. Jang indicated that the problem was caused by the overheat protection. Originally planning to fit a new motor & speedo, mechanic Toni Rheinard instead fit a fan to the motor and for Q4 everything ran with no problems. Describing third as a good position to be if something happens between Volker & Coelho, he said the big thing for him is to be starting ahead of Alexander Hagberg with whom he is currently tied for third in the championship standings.
Having started out qualifying with two DNFs, Yokomo’s Meen Vejrak managed to turn things around and secure his best ever starting position of 4th thanks to another strong run in the final qualifier. Leaving his BD7 unchanged as he didn’t want to take any unessecary risk the Thai driver posted the fourth fastest time ahead of team-mate Loic Jasmin, a result that would also put the French driver into the A-Main. Having conducted a lot of testing back in Thailand since his last ETS outing last season the former nitro World Champion said his driving style is now better adapted to the Yokomo and that is reflected in his improved competitiveness this weekend. Preferring to run his own set-up rather than follow that of Volker or Prumper, who have different driving styles, he said together with Yokomo team-manager Robert Itoh they have a few ideas they will try for A1 in the hope of improving the car.
Commenting on his Q4 performance Rheinard said his TRF419 ‘feels OK’ for the first 7 or 8 laps but then just loses 3/10th of a second a lap which is the same problem he’s been suffering all weekend. With ‘no pace for the Main’, the championship’s most winning driver said all he ‘can hope for is trouble up front so that he can sneak through’. Not the weekend the Round 2 winner had hoped for, TRF’s newest signing Christopher Krapp will join Rheinard on the grid as he scraped into 10th position with a 6th in the final qualifier.
Going into the final qualifier holding provisional 4th on the grid, Alexander Hagberg was ‘very disappointed’ with his closing qualifier. The Swede was on a strong run but ‘messed up’ on the penultimate lap which dropped him to 9th for the round and he got bumped back to 6th on the starting grid by Vejrak and Rheinard. The Xray driver said while he hopes to be able to finish higher in the final he said a podium would now be difficult ‘but that’s how it is sometimes’.
Making his debut for HB in Riccione, Jilles Groskamp will start the finals seventh ahead of team-mate Freddy Sudhoff. With the high quality field, a number of big names finding themselves in the B-Main, the Dutch driver said for his first race with HB’s new PRO5 7th in qualifying was ‘overall a good start’. Making an ‘extreme set-up change’, going in the completely opposite direction to before, he said while it ‘absolutely didn’t work’ he was happy that it showed changes make a difference to how the car reacts. For the final the plan is to use each main to test further set-up and build up data for future races. While disappointed for long time HB driver Andy Moore who has struggled all weekend he said ‘getting two drivers in the final is good for the new car’.
‘Super happy to be in the A-Main on asphalt again’, that was Sudhoff’s reaction to qualifying 8th. Although he made the A-Main on the asphalt surfaced Mattsee round in Austria last season, he said not counting that it has been a while since he has made the A-Main grid at a big outdoor race. The German said over the last two qualifiers they ‘tried a lot of stuff’ of which ‘some worked and some didn’t’ but as a result they had found a good direction in which to go for tomorrow and he is confident they can find better pace for the final.
For the Xray Pro Stock A-Main it will also be the defending champion who starts on pole with Marek Cerny claiming his second overall TQ of Season #8. The Xray driver produced a third TQ run in the fourth and final qualifier ahead of Martin Hofer, a result that will see the former champion start 2nd. Christian Donath’s Tamiya will line up third with Q1 pace setter Johannes Sperr’s Team C securing fourth on the grid.
In Formula, David Ehrbar secured Serpent’s first TQ of the season thanks to his Q1 pace as Martin Hofer backed up his Q3 run to take the final qualifier leaving the two German’s tied on points.
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