Boots TQs opening qualifier after last lap tangle from Ronnefalk
Elliott Boots has TQ’d the opening round of qualifying at the 1:8 Offroad European Championships in Sweden. The reigning champion took the first of the five scheduled qualifiers at the Gröndal Ring from top seed David Ronnefalk, the Swede costing himself the TQ after tangling with Neil Cragg on the last lap, the final separation 2/10ths of a second. Behind the two established title contenders, Davide Ongaro would open with a P3 run ahead of fellow up & coming teenager Juan Carlos Canas. The big turn around from his pace in controlled practice yesterday would come from Darren Bloomfield, the former champion posting 5th fastest ahead of 2015 Euro B Champion Riccardo Berton.
‘Better than expected’, was Boots reaction to his opening qualifier. The Kyosho driver continued, ‘I didn’t think it was a good run. I had a mistake on the straight which needed a marshal and I had a few sketchy laps’. The British driver said however he did benefit from having ‘a clear track most of the run so I stayed out of trouble’. Having struggled yesterday to decide on which tyre to use, he would choose Pro-Line’s X1 Suburb tyre for Q1 saying, ‘they felt pretty good, it made it easier to drive which I was looking for. It’s still edgy but that’s just the track’. In terms of his MP9 set-up, he said, ‘we changed a few things and went back more to our basic set-up and it was good’.
Ronnefalk summed up Q1 as ‘overall a good run’. The World Champion added, ‘on the last lap I caught cars which was bad timing. I thought I was alright and I would be ok to pass but I was too close to Neil (Cragg) and we touched in the air. It was totally my fault and I’m sorry for that. It was a good run till then as my laps were all 40-seconds before that’. Having ran all his practice runs in the No.10 spot of the tracks rather large driver stand, he said it took a bit of time to get used to being over on the opposite now in the No.1 position, he continued, ‘Overall I just wanted to put in a decent run. It’s a bummer but 2nd is still good if you look at the big picture’. In terms of his car, the HB Racing driver said, ‘I felt the shock package was too hard in the shakedown this morning but we left it as it was because the temperature would go up and it came good’. On tyres he used JConcepts’ Metrix tyre for Q1.
‘Good, we improved the tyre and the car’, was Ongaro’s view of his first qualifying attempt. The Team Associated driver said switching from AKA Enduro tyre to their Moto had made the car more easy over the bumps. Feeling the rear of his car is rolling too much for Q2, the World Championship finalist will change to a harder rear roll bar. While making ‘2 0r 3 small mistakes but nothing major’, the Italian was happy with his driving over the 5-minutes.
Fourth fastest Canas reported the feeling of the track was more aggressive today making his Mugen more difficult to drive. The Spaniard also had to deal with brake issues with the brakes set too much to the front and this gave him issues at the end of the straight as they locked up braking caused him to lose steering’. For Q2, the 2016 Euro A Finalist & Euro B Champion will switch to a harder front rollbar to improve the steering. On his driving over the 5-minutes, the 15-year-old said, the approach for today is too be ‘very smooth & safe’ to get into the Semi and then tomorrow he can push.
Bloomfield described his P5 time as, ‘Pretty good compared to yesterday’. The Agama driver continued, ‘we changed quite a bit but the biggest change was to go back to the standard shock caps’. Having run prototype Emulsion caps he said the lack of rebound with that set-up had caused the car to be lazy and ‘not very accurate’ but now with 50% rebound it ‘stops all that rolling around’. Also going down in the centre diff oil, the British driver said with it now ‘driving more like a front wheel it’s more driveable’. Having crashed 4-times in the warm-up for his heat, he said ‘when I came in for fuel I told myself don’t crash and see where I end up’. With no set-up changes planned for Q2, he will ‘clean it and watch what the track is doing’, drivers in the Top 3 heats having almost 5-hours between their first and second runs due to a change in the running order for Q2. Bloomfield said because it was a brand new car just a few days ago he’ll use that time to check over everything.
‘It was a safe run. Sixth is not so bad’, was Berton’s view of Q1. The Kyosho driver continued, ‘the car was better than yesterday. We changed back to the CP1 set-up because it worked better’. For Round 2 of qualifying the teenager will run anti-squat saying ‘the other Kyosho drivers are using it and like it so it should make my car better on the bumps. Behind Berton, Mugen’s Robert Batlle posted the 7th fastest time ahead of Xray’s Martin Bayer and TLR’s Renaud Savoya with Yannick Aigion completing the Top 10 with his Xray.
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