Zanchettin TQ’s penultimate Euros qualifier

Alex Zanchettin has TQ’d the fourth & penultimate round of qualifying at the 1:8 Offroad European Championships in Sacile.  On an increasingly difficult Ongaroring track, conditions catching out both David Ronnefalk and Robert Batlle, the Team Losi Racing driver set the pace from Kyosho’s Elliott Boots. Behind them, qualifying having so far produced a different driver at the top of the time sheets each round, Serpent’s Joern Neumann would enjoy his best qualifier to complete the Top 3.

Having crashed out of Q3, Zanchettin said he just tried to drive a safe 5-minutes in search of getting a good third run.  With three from five to count towards the final qualifying order, the result should see the Italian Champion go directly into the Semi finals.  Switching to a harder rear spring on his 8ight 3.0, the 20-year-old said it ‘was easy to drve and so fast’.  Suffering just one small error when he bounced off the pipping and spun on the entry to the main straight, he said the track now had a lot of grip and ruts describing it as being now very similar to how it was at the Warm-up Race.  Also switching from Pro-Line’s Suburb to Holeshot tyre, with the 1st to go with his 5th and 12th from the opening two qualifiers, he will use the last qualifier to test for the final with a rear camber link and tyre pattern change planned.

Boots, who can now only be denied his first overall Euros TQ, said ‘the start was a bit messy’ as he had problems with cars that didn’t want to give each other space.  Also catching a backmarker, who did want to give way, he said it ‘was challenging to get by him’.  Otherwise the British driver said things were ‘very good’ in terms of his Reds Racing powered MP9 and from his point it was a ‘clean run’.  Commenting on track conditions he said it was getting a ‘bit strange’. Starting to break up making it loose he said while this made the car moving around more, the growing ruts would catch the car making it a little unpredictable.  Having had his car tested for a gyro on completion of Q4, it passing the test, he said in terms of set-up there was ‘nothing wrong with the car’ and he would leave it unchanged and go all out for the TQ.

Having got his Maxima powered Cobra 2.2’s more steering on the brick sections, Neumann said the biggest improvement came from his driving.  Having one ‘small bobble’ on the corner double after the loop, the German said the track was more difficult now.  With the growing number of exposed stones causing the rear of the cars to kick up, he said it was difficult to do anything to the car to change that and instead he would adapt his driving and his lines.

Setting the fourth fastest time, Alessandro Stocco was ‘not expecting such a good result’.  Apart from a couple of small bobbles, the 21-year-old said he was very happy with the run, a change to a harder rear spring on his TLR making it easier to drive and giving it better rotation in the corners.  Needing another good run to try and book a direct starting position in the Semis, the Italian will not risk making any changes to his 8ight and instead just focus on trying to put in a clean 5-minutes.

14-year-old up & coming Italian star Ongaro said a change to a cold plug in his LRP engine was a wrong call as the cooler conditions lead it to run rich after 4-minutes. Very happy with his Mugen he said the more the track ruts up the better his MBX-7R is performing and he will leave it unchanged for Q5.

‘Safe and conservative’, that was how Renaud Savoya summed up his sixth fastest time.  His best qualifier, the HB/HPI Racing team driver said having seen ‘so many top guys crash there’ he opted to roll the double.  Running on JConcepts’ blue compound Remix tyre, the 3-time Champion felt he should have went with a harder compound with him losing around 3-seconds over the last three laps as the tyres went off.  With the track ‘really tough now in some sections’, the Shark said he needs to find new lines and push where you can and be cautious everywhere else.

Ending up only 17th fastest, defending champion Ronnefalk said he knew he had a good first lap but went and cased the double after the loop.  Losing over 4-seconds, he said he was happy he has three good rounds yesterday.  The only driver who can deny Boots the overall TQ, him winning both his titles as Top Qualifier, he said his tyre choice, soft AKA City Block fronts & iBeam rears was maybe too soft for the temperature.  The HB driver said with the track getting rough and the ruts coming up its catching the side of the tyre too much.  He said while ‘of course he wanted to go for the overall TQ’ he would use Q5 to test for the Mains with him planning to run Impact tyres.

Taking yesterday’s closing qualifier, Batlle described Q4 as ‘super bad’.  Setting the 20th fastest time, the Mugen driver said he crashed at the double just after the heat started and ‘things didn’t improve’.  Happy with his lap times when he did get a clean lap, the Spaniard said ‘some stuff (they) tested with tyres worked as expected’.

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Video – Elliott Boots Qualifying Rd4

Batlle tops Q3, Boots holds overnight TQ

The first day of qualifying at the 1:8 Offroad European Championships produced TQ runs from three different drivers with Robert Batlle the latest driver to top the time sheets around the Ongaroring.  Running the fastest 5-minute time of the day, the Mugen driver topped Q3 from Elliott Boots and defending champion David Ronnefalk both having topped the earlier rounds.  Fastest in the opening qualifier it is Boots who leaves the track holding the provisional overnight TQ with the remaining two rounds of qualifying scheduled for tomorrow.

Having crashed in both of the earlier qualifiers, claiming a 7th & a 5th, Batlle said no mistakes was the key to his TQ run.  Having run the same set-up on his Mugen in all three rounds, the 2-time Champion said it was ‘super nice’ to drive and in Q3 he did not have to push a lot to achieve the time.  Describing it as having ‘good speed and consistency’, the Spaniard said thre track is starting to get more bumpy now making it difficult adding these are the type of conditions he prefers.  Sitting third in the provisional qualification ranking, he said with three good runs he can tomorrow use the remaining two rounds to work on a set-up for the finals.

Close to backing up his Q1 performance in the second round until late mistakes, Boots described his third qualifier as ‘better’. With ‘no mistakes as such’, the Kyosho driver said he was ‘not quite as quick on a few laps’ and had to roll over one jump due to a backmarker.  1.3-seconds off Batlle’s pace, the British driver was ‘pleased there was not much in it because (he) was very comfortable with the car’.  Another driver who hasn’t changed his car’s set-up over the day, he plans to ‘keep going with it the same’ for tomorrow.  Making a big impression in practice and the opening two qualifier Boots’ Kyosho team-mate Riccardo Berton didn’t have a good third qualifier, after just one lap he crashed in the chicane and broke a steering arm.

‘Once again I guess’, that was Ronnefalk’s reaction to again tangling with a backmarker.  Happening halfway through the run and costing him around 2.5 seconds, said with Boots and Batlle running before him he knew he needed a good run and that the incident had cost him the TQ.  Like in the previous round which he TQ’d despite getting spun round by a backmarker, he would finished the run off with a last lap that was a new fastest time for the track, posting a 37.345.  With a 3, 1, 3 for the three qualifiers he said this already gives him a good starting position for the Semis allowing him to run a second Orion engine tomorrow and test tyre options in preparation for Saturday’s finals. In terms of his D815 set-up he said the buggy is really good and he doesn’t need to change anything for the finals.

Backing up his Q2 Top 3 pace with fourth, Martin Bayer said the run was ‘pretty good’.  Making a small set-up adjustment to his FX powered Xray, he didn’t like the change and will revert back for the morning.  Running Pro-Line Surburb X2 tyres, he said while they felt ok they were sliding a little on the growing number of exposed rocks and so he will try something different for Q4.  Only 14th in Q1, the two time podium finisher said he just needs one more good run to book himself directly into the Semis.

Behind Bayer, it was his Xray team-mate Yannick Aigoin who posted the fifth fastest time. Making a ‘bad tyre choice in Q1’ and then suffering from a combination of poor driving and his XB8 not having a good balance in Q2, the former Champion said he ‘went back to basics’.  Running his standard set-up and switching to Pro-line’s X2 compound Bow Tie tyre he said things were much improved.  While he had ‘no big crashes’ he said for Q4 he would try to further improve his driving and with the car now having a good base set-up he would just make some small adjustments.

Finishing ahead of 2012 Champion Darren Bloomfield, Joern Neumann was happy to complete the Top 6.  Having been 8th in Q1, the Serpent driver would crash in the second qualifier leaving him 14th fastest.  Describing his Maxima powered Cobra 2.2 as feeling alright, the German is looking for a little more steering in the bricks sections.  To try improve on this he will further reduce the car’s rear toe-in. Getting out of shape half way through Q3 losing over 2-seconds, the multiple electric offroad European Champion said his lap times are ‘OK’ and he feels with a clean run he has got Top 5 pace.

View the complete results here.

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