Leino improves pace in Bangkok
Albeit by just 0.004 of a second, Teemu Leino improved on his opening practice pace in the penultimate round to stay on top of the ranking ahead of Nicholas Lee and Dario Balestri. Running a 3-consecutive lap time of 42.326 in CP3, the Finn topped the round ahead of Serpent’s Mark Green and defending World Champion Meen Vejrak, both drivers also producing their best times so far. Overall the round made for little change at the top with Leino continuing to hold P1 from Nicholas Lee and Dario Balestri with Green the biggest mover, breaking into the Top 10 to go fourth overall.
Leaving his R10 unchanged, Leino put his improvement down to a change of Novarossi engine with the new unit having ‘more power’. With the sun already starting to go down in Bangkok, the 2012 Top Qualifier said the track was also slightly better than CP2 due to the cooler conditions. Planning to leave his car unchanged for the final practice of the sixth running of the 200mm World Championships, he said he wasn’t expecting much from the round. With the enclosed Huge RC Circuit flood lights already on, he said a combination of the lights and the smoke, which in the evening conditions hangs in the air, this makes it very hard to see with the fumes also very hard on the eyes. He said he hoped come qualifying, which have now been reduced to 5-minutes rather than 10, the timetable would mean they would not have to run in such conditions.
Taking over as the lead Serpent driver, demoting team-mate Yuya Sahashi to fifth, Green said he was just picking up after being thrown off track by a ‘worn part’ following ‘poor maintenance’ of his 748. Having started off the event five days ago with a good car he said having begun to lose pace he then tried each of his team-mates’ set-ups. First trying Dominic Greiner’s and then Alessio Mazzeo’s he said neither suited his 1:8 driving style. Struggling to find a good set-up, last night the ‘worn part’ was discovered and replaced putting the British ace back on track today with some fine tuning each round giving him his CP3 pace. Happy with the car and set to run it unchanged in the last practice, he will try ‘some engine stuff’ Novarossi have asked him to test. Having been working towards 10-minute qualifiers today he said it was annoying to find out last minute that they would be 5-minute duration. A rule sets out that the heats are reduced to 5-minutes if over 100 entries are received for the event. With just over 100 entries it was initially declared that qualifying would stay at 10-minutes but following some objections the rule was subsequently implemented to many drivers’ disappointment with it felt 10-minute qualifiers are what set the world championship apart from other major events.
Improving his time but falling one place in the overall ranking due to Green’s new speed, Vejrak said said new ‘smoother’ diffs further improved his KM Racing HK-1 ‘a little’. Unfortunately clipping a curb, the Thai ace rolled leaving him to struggle for the rest of the run discovering afterwards that he had chunked a rear tyre. Happy with that he is headed in the right way with the car set-up, he said with a bit more power for the next one he should be able to further improve and he hopes to get that ‘punch’ by setting his clutch more aggressive.
Changing only the Picco engine in his 748, Sahashi said his focus for the run was on checking his 5-minute run time. Unable to better his fastest time he would record 4th for the round declaring himself very happy with how everything is running. The round would see his 1:8 World Champion brother Tadahiko take his 8 Natrix to 6th but he would not improve on his CP2 pace which currently leaves him 14th.
Kyle Branson was fifth fastest for the round, again unable to improve on his opening practice pace. The Capricorn driver said having followed Leino around at the start he is very happy with his car set-up but power is an issue. Changing back to his CP1 XRD engine, having had trouble tuning the engine he used in the second round, he said after a good first two minutes the engine started to go off due to the heat. For the final practice the British driver will run a third engine saying if he can get that to work he will be very confident going into qualifying. Team-mate Balestri also struggled with power issues, the Italian only 7th fastest for the round almost half a second off his best time set in the first round.
Having impressed in the second practice, Lee said his Xray pushed too much in the third. Having left his car unchanged since yesterday’s open practice, he said he is going to have to now make a change, with a rear suspension change on the cards. Elsewhere the round saw the best times so far for former World Champions Kesuike Fukuda, the 2006 winner, and Jilles Groskamp, the 2012 Electric Touring Car World Champion and 2008 200mm Top Qualifier. Fukuda posted the 9th fastest time of TP3 to go 17th overall while Groskamp was 13th fastest, moving him up to 19th overall.
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