Coelho masters difficult conditions in 1st control practice
Bruno Coelho mastered difficult track conditions on Day 2 of the Electric Touring Car World Championships in Beijing this morning to top the first round of controlled practice. Having topped yesterday’s six rounds of free practice, the Xray driver again was fastest but with wind effecting track conditions it was not a repeat of the 1-2 the Slovakian manufacturer witnessed on the opening Day. With Hagberg managing only P10, pulling up with a minute to go as he clearly struggled with his car, there was a marked improvement from reigning manufacturer champions Yokomo. Only p5 in free practice, Ronald Volker would set the second fastest time, albeit 7/10ths off Coelho over the best 3-consecutive laps, with team-mate Loic Jasmin completing the Top 3.
Almost 2 and half seconds slower than his free practice time Coelho said, ‘the track is super slow for everybody today’. Making ‘little changes’ to the set-up on his T4 in anticipation of the low traction he said ‘my car worked very well for the conditions’. While the re application of sugar water this morning with no sun to properly dry it out will have had some effect on the conditions, with a wind warning in place for Beijing today it is this which most drivers feel is the biggest reason for the low traction. Giving his reason for the slower track Coelho said, ‘the wind is bringing dust on to the track and that with it so loose the wind is effecting the car’. He continued, ‘it makes the car very unpredictable’ and looking up to the cloud covered sky he added, ‘I think it will get worse’.
‘A better start to the day for me’ was Volker’s reaction after the first of the 3 controlled practices, the first two determining the seeding of the qualifying heats. He continued, ‘the track is completely different to yesterday because of the wind but we definitely took the right direction when we combined the best set-ups from the two car yesterday onto one today’. In addition to the wind, the German also feels the much lower temperatures are effecting the traction too. Asked about changes to his soon to be released LRP powered BD8 for his next run, he replied ‘the car actually felt quite good but I need to check over the lap times for the whole run to compare the drop off to the others and then discuss with the team’.
Running in heat 13 of 15, French National Champion Jasmin said, ‘it was a good run’. Having struggled with a lack of steering yesterday he said, ‘I found more steering and this is the point everyone is lacking and to get more steering than yesterday when the track is as it is is very positive’. Feeling his BD8 is ‘still a little loose’ he added this was probably a combination of running new tyres and the fact there is ‘for sure less traction’ today. The ETS A-Main regular plans to make changes to his set-up for CP2 to try an improve the traction.
Having been concerned yesterday about how his car would be over 5-minutes, running two cars meaning he never ran more than 2 & a half minutes, Christopher Krapp said ‘now I’m happy about my 5-minute pace’. Posting the 4th fastest 3-consecutive lap time, the Tamiya driver however was less impressed with himself saying, ‘I’m not happy with my driving. I made too many mistakes here and there’. With his super star team-mates Marc Rheinard and reigning World Champion Naoto Matsukura 21st and 24th respectively, Krapp said, ‘For me there is not a huge change (in lap time) maybe 1-second but for others there is 2-seconds of a difference. Luckily I’m OK’. Planning ‘a small diff change’ on his Orion powered 419X, he said he would also ‘try to drive more clean’. Having finished P4 in free practice yesterday right behind Krapp, Rheinard said, ‘I have no idea what is happening. The track is really shit conditions with the wind’. He continued, ‘I don’t know how I can be almost 3-seconds a lap slower today. The car is doing funny stuff and just spins out’.
‘Better again today’, was Viktor Wilck’s reaction to posting the 5th fastest time. Serpent’s lead factory driver, he said, ‘when the grip is low, like yesterday morning, the car is OK, when the grip comes up I’m struggling’. The Swede added, ‘for sure the conditions now are better for our car’. Looking to CP2, he plans to make ‘small set-up changes’ to his Speedpassion powered 4X with running in his second set of tyres also a priority. New for this year’s Worlds is the use of new and used tyre for qualifying. With each round declared as a new or used tyre run, drivers must run new tyres in controlled practice to have used tyres for qualifying and one of the runs is that a driver must complete a minimum 10-laps on the tyres for them to be valid used tyres.
Completing the Top 6 ahead of Australia’s Simon Nicholson, Andy Moore said, ‘it was ok but the track changed like a huge amount’. The Team Infinity driver added, ‘I’m not sure if its the wind or that they sprayed the track again but it’s a bit of disaster really’. Feeling he had better conditions than the top heat and describing his Xray as felling ok the 2006 World Champion concluded, ‘I made the most of what I had’. Behind Moore, Yokomo’s Nicolas Lee and Infinity team-mate Jilles Groskamp filled out the Top 10 ahead of Hagberg.
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