Ronnefalk is Top Seed at 1:8 Euros

David Ronnefalk is the top seed at this year’s European Championships in Sweden, the HB Racing driver topping controlled practice with his time from the first of today’s two runs. Also topping the second 9-minute run, the Swede would end Day 2 of the event fastest from reigning Champion Elliott Boots. Second fastest in CP1, like Ronnefalk, the British driver would also fail to better that time posting third fastest time for the final practice. After a troubled opening seeding run, Robert Batlle would be the only driver in the Top 6 to set their in CP2 posting the 2nd fastest time for the round which was good enough to seed the Mugen driver third.  Batlle’s improvement would demote fellow Spaniard Juan Carlos Canas Carrasco from third to fourth with Portuguese duo João Figueiredo and Carlos Durães completing the Top 6 ahead of French driver Rayan Medjoubi.

Producing another sub 2-minute time for his 3-consecutive laps, the only driver to do so throughout both free & controlled practice, Ronnefalk summed up his day as, ‘Pretty good’.  The World Champion continued, ‘I tried two different sets of tyres.  The best where the Metrix in a harder compound and I also ran Reflex in R2 compound.  We left the car as is and I think this one was better than the last one.  The track is even more rough and I basically had the same speed, and the consistency is there’. On the track surface, the 2-time European Champion said, ‘the track is getting rougher but it’s still way better than the Warm-up (race).  They will fix some spots and put more material in the worst parts but I like it as it is’.

Well short of matching his CP1 time, Boots said, ‘we changed quite a lot on the car and it wasn’t better, it was worse.  We also tried a different tyre’.  He continued, ‘the track is fast, grippy and edgy so it’s hard to find the right set-up on tyres. For the shakedown in the morning I will try something else again and decide (on what tyre to use). We need to find something to get on the pace’.  While feeling he is missing out on outright speed compared to Ronnefalk, asked if he still felt he had the better consistency, the Kyosho driver replied, ‘not too much in that one, my consistency was better before’.

Having flamed out twice in CP1 due to a glowplug problem, Batlle said, ‘this time we figured out everything’.  Changing to a different shock set-up on his MBX-7R, the former World Champion said, ‘it helped me a lot, while it is impossible to drive comfortably on this track the car as now as comfortable as I can expect it too be’.  Winning the last of his two European titles in 2011, while the Spaniard feels he is ‘missing a few tenths’ the base set-up is now good and on consistency he said ‘it is super nice, I could do 8 or 9 40-second laps in a row’.

Using the final practice to try a different tyre, Canas didn’t like the feeling it gave. Switching from Procircuit’s Addictive tyre to their H-Block, the teenager said it gave him too much side grip for his liking and he will go back for the start of qualifying tomorrow. Last year’s finalist would also use CP2 to try running a carbon front shock tower switching away from the alloy one he had been used with the chance of giving him smoother steering and he will stick with this for Q1. In terms of consistency, Canas believes he is not only fast over 3-laps but that the speed and consistency is there for qualifying but was quick to emphasise how running 5-minutes on the track is ‘not easy’.

Opening CP2 with two good laps, Figueiredo said, ‘At the beginning I was super fast and was on for a 2:00 but had a small mistake on my 3rd lap’.  Having changed to heavier shock oil in his Kyosho, he said overall the car was better and faster but as the run went on the car got more difficult. Putting this down to his diff oils, he will for tomorrow do as he did with the shocks and go up in the oil weight.

‘So far so good’ was how Durães summed up his P6 in seeding.  The Serpent driver said having struggled yesterday, a change of shock pistons for controlled practice as well as a change of tyre made his car ‘more comfortable’.  Switching from AKA Zipps to Impacts, for the final practice he would try running a softer shock oil but said, ‘I think I will go back as it was easier to drive before’.  Asked if he feels he can match his 3-lap seeding pace with a strong qualifying run, Durães said, ‘single lap times are not my goal as being consistent is most important and I think my consistency is OK’.

View the complete event results here.

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