Coelho again in Q2
Bruno Coelho has backed up his impressive Q1 topping performance with another TQ run in the second round of qualifying at the IFMAR World Championships at the Yatabe Arena. Despite a less perfect run, the Xray driver making one mistake when he rolled his XB4 in front of the drivers stand losing over 3-seconds, Coelho would still top the times. With the margin this time only half a second rather than the massive 5-seconds he had in Q1 second would be Michal Orlowski with David Ronnefalk third a further 1.5-seconds adrift. It would turn out being an all European Top 6 with Tom Cockerill fourth followed by former European Champions Martin Bayer and Lee Martin with American Ryan Maifield posting a P7 run.
‘Not perfect but still really really good’ that was the reaction of the 1:10 Offroad World Championship debutant Coelho. Having only made his international event debut last month at the Euro Offroad Series in Germany, the star of onroad racing said while they knew from testing at the Hudy Racing Arena prior to travelling to Japan that the new XB4 would be good he ‘didn’t expect as much from the car’. Posting the fastest lap of qualifying so far with a 17.124, Orlowski and Ronnefalk’s best being 17.4 laps, he said he just needs to drive the car. Asked about his error which saw his car tumble across lanes and require marshalling, he replied ‘It was just a bad landing, I think it landed on its back wheel’. For Q3, when he could potentially claim the overall TQ, he said the plan was to go out and try to repeat what he’s done so far only less the Q2 mistake.
Another driver to make a mistake in front of the driver stand, Orlowski said other than the single mistake it was a ‘very good run’. Explaining his mistake the Schumacher driver said ‘I jumped too far and then when I turned in it traction rolled’ adding that he felt grip was higher in Q2. Surviving a number of moments when his CAT K2 got up on two wheels, the reigning European Champion and EOS front runner said he is ‘too slow to catch Bruno’ and for Q3 he will ‘try to change something in the car to get it to go faster’.
‘No stupid nerves that time’ was the reaction of a much more relaxed looking Ronnefalk. Having struggled to hit his lines in Q1, he said in the warm-up he knew changes to his HB meant he had a much better car leaving him relaxed for the qualifier. Changing the steering geometry and shock set-up, he said his D413 was way better. Rolling over once which cost him ‘about a second’, for Q3 he will leave the car unchanged with tyres his main focus, the Swede unsure whether to continue on the same set of Schumacher controlled tyre which have already done Q1 & 2, or fit new ones.
Cockerill, whose previous best at a Worlds was 20th place in Chico, said he ‘over the moon’ with his P4. A surprise second in the first qualifier, the Yokomo driver said he just did the same thing as Q1 and kept it clean. Describing his YZ-4 as a ‘little bit edgy’, he said he wants to go for thicker sway bars but doesn’t want to change it considering the results he is getting out of it as is. Saying he is ‘not the fastest in his heat’, the British driver running in the second fastest group, he said ‘everyone else is crashing’.
Having dropped from running a TQ pace in Q1 to finishing up 31st after a series of driver errors, Bayer said he just went for a ‘super safe run’. The lead Xray driver said ‘I know the car has the pace’ but that time I needed to get good points so went safe’. With Jared Tebo and Naoto Matsukura running behind him, he said it wasn’t easy but he was happy to get a P5. For Q3 he will again take the ‘safe approach’.
Completing the Top 6, Lee Martin was annoyed that he again made an error at the same spot as he did in Q1. The Euro Offroad Series Champion, who kicked off his title defence recently with a win in Germany, said his ‘pace is ok’ but he is ‘not driving amazing’ with the mistake costing him 3-seconds. On the blind approach to the table top he said he was told his Yokomo caught the dots sending it onto the jump upside down. Having traction rolled coming off the table top in Q1, he said hopefully its third time lucky in the next one and I don’t crash there.
Asked how his qualifying was going, Maifield replied, ‘better than some’. Having one mistake in Q2, the TLR driver said his TLR22-4 is ‘really consistent and easy to drive’. While admitting to not being able to better 17.4 lap times, the American said the cars got Top 5 performance but he needs to put together a clean full run. Behind Maifield, Matsukura would set the 8th fastest time with Kaito Akimoto and Kohta Akimoto rounding off the Top 10.
View the complete overall qualifying standings after Rd2 here (PDF).
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