Coelho finally gets his deserved World title
Having burst on to the scene at the 2014 Electric Touring Car World Championships in Florida finishing runner-up, then dominating the 2016 Worlds in China up until A2 and again finishing runner-up, Bruno Coelho is finally World Champion. Widely acknowledged as the bench mark in touring car, the World title is the one to elude him but after a rocky start in South Africa it all came together for the Portuguese ace as he again found a way passed the defending champion to win A2 and the status of the No.1 driver in the World. Having found a way passed the Top Qualifier in A1 despite Volker’s best efforts to make his Yokomo wide, this time round Coelho set-up an impressive pass on his rival to go to the front after just 3-laps. Unfortunately any chances of Volker recovering to force the decider to go to A3 evaporated a lap later as the Welkom RC Arena’s curbing claimed another victim, Volker. In the end Volker would finish last with Viktor Wilck coming home second ahead of Freddy Sudhoff, all three now set to fight for the final two podium places in A3.
‘No words. Amazing. Finally’, was a somewhat stunned Coelho’s reaction after his title winning final, this the 10th running of the championships. He continued, ‘I missed it 4-years ago. I missed it again 2-years ago and now I finally got it when things didn’t look so good. In China everything was perfect but it wasn’t to be, it proves in racing anything can happen. To win at this amazing place is also extra special’. On the A2 final, the 25-year-old said, ‘In the warm-up I immediately felt the car was good. Before every time the car was different (set-up) so I didn’t know what it was going to do but this time I could feel it was good. I lost the rear two times on the first lap but I knew this was the because the tyre were cold from the grid and once they came in I made very high pressure on Ronald but I was just looking to get the points and not make a mistake. The overtake I made was a very good move. I made a dummy pass and then braked but Ronald thought I was coming down his inside and made a mistake and then I could got through. Qualifying was very bad. Ok it was 2nd but for me that is bad but now I’m really happy. There are no words for the feeling’.
Relinquishing his title, Volker said, ‘I felt good going into the final but he had a quicker car’. The Yokomo driver continued, ‘I had a good first lap but he was faster and forced me into a small mistake but the curbs basically ended my race. We all knew you are taking a risk going over them but it was the worst moment it could have happen’. A driver who came into the event looking super strong, energised and with a very positive mental approach, he said, ‘I’m surely disappointed and feel sorry for all my sponsors, my team and myself but credit to Bruno for a great drive and his title’.
Commenting on his second place in A2, Wilck said, ‘I was hoping for something bad to happen between them but Ronald spun himself and Bruno had too big a gap’. Looking to repeat the podium finish he achieved in China 2-years ago from 6th on the grid, the Serpent driver said, ‘I just have to push Ronald a little bit. His car seems a little unstable at the moment but Freddy is fast so I have to keep it clean’.
Sudhoff said, ‘That was a pretty good one and it was very close in the end with Viktor’. Looking to the all important A3, the Awesomatix driver added, ‘I know my car is good at the end of the run so I will keep confident to the end of the race and try to make a podium happen’.
In the Formula World Cup, the class set to be a full World Championship class in 2020, Jan Ratheisky made it two out of two to take the overall win. The Xray driver found himself under massive pressure from Serpent’s David Ehrbar who got by on lap two and led for 3 laps before Ratheisky got him back. While Ehrbar had the faster looking car the German didn’t have the patience and made a mistake 3 laps from home to finish 3rd.
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