No surprise as Naoto TQs opening qualifier

There was no surprise in the opening round of qualifying for the 1:12 World Championships with Naoto Matsukura topping the 8-minute heat by a considerable margin from the CRC’s of Marc Rheinard and Simo Ahomiemi.  Like in yesterday’s practice, the reigning World Champion was the only driver to record a 39-lap run with his Yokomo once again setting the fastest lap with a 12.203 which was near on identical to his 12.202 record set in controlled practice.

Despite his rivals openly accepting that they are battling it out for the runners-up spot at these, the 16th running of the 1:12 Worlds, Matsukura said his Yokomo was a little difficult to drive as his steering to the left and the right were different.  Chasing a third consecutive world title here in the Netherlands he said his car felt a little loose something he put down to his set-up rather than the track conditions. Having had a control tyre additive in 2010, this year drivers are free to use any odourless additive and this has resulted in mixture of additives being used causing the track surface to be very oily with many of the top drivers struggling with the loose conditions.

Describing his run as ‘safe’, Rheinard said he lacked low end power with his prototype narrow chassis CRC very slow out of the corners.  Happy overall with how the car handled he said he will leave the set-up as is but change the settings on his Speed Passion speedo for Q2. Reverting back to the same set-up that saw him feature strongly in free practice, Ahomiemi said his ‘standard’ CRC felt really good but his driving could have been better.  Making a few small mistakes he said he will continue with the car as is for Q2 and focus on cleaning up his driving.

Setting the fourth fastest time Jilles Groskamp was on target to take P2 until he had a coming together with Tamiya Touring Car team-mate Elliot Harper.  Glancing the track boards Harper’s CRC bounced into the path of Groskamp’s Onpoint Racing car sending the Dutch ace into corner marker from where he needed marshaling.  Losing 5-seconds Groskamp said despite the incident, which he added was no fault of Harper, it was a positive first run as he was able to run a closer pace to Matsukura and with a clean run is confident he can be the quickest of those in the battle to become Vice Champion.

Xray’s Alexander Hagberg took a cautious approach to the opening qualifier and it paid dividends for the Swede as he set the fifth fastest.  Describing the run as ‘OK’ he said he is still too far off the pace but with a better starting position for Q2 he is confident that by ‘increasing the risk’ and driving harder he can close the gap.  Running in the second highest heat, he said he will leave his X12 set-up the same.

Completing the Top 6 was Corally’s Hideo Kitazawa.  The Japanese driver, who is only in the third highest heat, said his prototype chassis was very nervous to drive and this led to him making a mistake.  Planning to leave the car the same for his second qualifier he expects to try a different tyre additive to try make it more stable.

Elsewhere Ronald Volker, who was closest to Matsukura yesterday, pulled up after he got caught up in the Harper/Groskamp coming together that resulted in his Associated suffering a chunked tyre.  Third fastest yesterday. factory Associated driver Juho Levanen didn’t feature in Q1 ending up 42nd fastest.  The Finn switched to JRF tyres and ran them in the three minute practice round this morning in which he said they worked well but opting to run the same set in his first heat he said it was a bad call as the 11 minutes was too much running.

Round 1 Qualification – Top 10 times
1. Naoto Matsukura (JP) – Yokomo – 39/8:10.594
2. Marc Rheinard (DE) – CRC – 38/8:03.260
3. Simo Ahoniemi (FI) – CRC – 38/8:03.997
4. Jilles Groskamp (NL) – Onpoint – 38/8:07.245
5. Alexander Hagberg (SE) – Xray – 38/8:07.737
6. Hideo Kitazawa (JP) – Corally – 38/8:07.832
7. Markus Mobers (DE) – Onpoint – 38/8:08.324
8. Keven Hebert (CA) – Associated – 38/8:09.367
9. Toshiki Kunitomo (JP) – CRC – 38/8:11.531
10.Olly Jeffries (GB) – Associated – 38/8:12.233

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