Orlowski claims perfect 2WD TQ at DHI Cup
Michal Orlowski is set to defend his DHI Cup 2WD Offroad title from pole position after the Schumacher driver produced a clean sweep of the qualifying at the Danish event. Having taken Q1 & 2 yesterday, the Polish teenager continued to reign over proceedings as he made it four TQ runs from the four qualifiers putting himself in pole position to make it three 2WD title wins in a row. Behind him, 13-year-old Swede Elias Johansson maintained the promise he showed on Day 1 finishing second fastest in Q3 & 4 to Orlowski to secure P2 on the grid for tomorrow’s A-Mains. While Jesper Rasmussen struggled with his set-up today, the Danish driver’s results from yesterday where enough to secure third on the grid ahead of Joern Neumann and former Top Qualifier Oskar Levin. Although he topped seeding, 2015 Champion David Ronnefalk’s was again unable to convert that pace into consistency over the 5-minutes and mistakes every run mean the HB Racing driver will start the final from 8th on the grid.
Commenting on his overall TQ, Orlowski said, ‘we didn’t touch the car from yesterday and I used one set of tyres to save the other set for the final so it all worked out quite well. Its nice to get 4 out of 4’. Looking to the finals, the EOS Champion said, ‘the track isn’t that hard. The corner table top is the trickiest part because he don’t know who the car is going to land but I will just try to keep my head down and cruise around’.
‘I’m pretty happy, actually really happy’, was Johansson’s reaction to qualifying at the sharp end of the grid. The Associated driver ran his car unchanged for Q3 & 4 but along with removing the outside row of pins from the handout Schumacher rear tyres also removed the inside pin saying it made the car ‘much easier to drive’. Asked his approach to the finals, the Swede replied, ‘I want to try and keep it together, no stupid mistakes on the first lap’.
Rasmussen said, ‘I am happy with the result overall but the last two qualifiers were not perfect’. Changing his Associated to get more steering he said the result was the car was ‘too hard to drive’. Planning to go back to his base set-up for the opening final, the 19-year-old added, ‘I hope I can get a good start and keep it clean for the race’.
Making his debut at the DHI Cup with Schumacher, Neumann said given the limited time he has had with the car he is relatively pleased with things so far. He added, ‘you change a tiny thing but have to wait 2-hours to see if it works but after this we can do some better testing but I am definitely enjoying the car’. Asked about the finals, the German said, ‘I need a little more steering in a few corners. I am running the alu chassis and Michal is using carbon so I am going to try carbon for the final to see’.
View the complete event results here.
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