Bruno Coelho is 2019 SIGP Top Qualifier

Taking his 3rd round of qualifying, despite a mid run mistake, Bruno Coelho has locked down the top qualifying spot here in Xiamen at the 2019 SIGP. The Xray factory driver briefly lost the lead when he rolled his car, allowing Dominic Quek to the front but once back on his wheels he set about regaining the lead to take the win and with it pole position for tomorrow’s A-main finals. Quek was just half a second back in 2nd, also running the new Xray, while an improved Meen Vejrak completed Q3 in 3rd. Akio Sobue was 4th for Infinity while Nicholas Lee was fifth. Bruno said that they made a small suspension change which worked well despite the World Champion being on 3rd run tires. Asked abut his high speed crash he said that he only just gently clipped the curb which sent his car into what seemed like a slow motion roll before stopping against the back side of a curb. He was able to continue and regain the lead and with the TQ his he will use the final qualifier to test.

Dominic Quek has emerged as the most consistent of the chasing pack as he took his second 2nd place in qualifying and now looks set to start from that position, just behind his Xray team mate. Comparing his car to how it was this morning Quek felt his T4 2020 had improved a lot and has only made small changes to adapt to the changing traction conditions. ‘When Bruno crashed I was hoping he would lose 1 more second’, joked the Singapore driver, the pair separated by only 0.5 at the end. Asked if he would be happy with 2nd, he replied ‘2nd to Bruno is like 1st to me’.

Yokomo driver Meen Vejrak had a pretty terrible start to the day with a non finish in Q1 but his luck has steadily improved with a P4 in Q2 and finally a P3 in Q3. Not happy yet with the handling of his BD9, the Thai racer said that he thought his car would be better on new tires, but he now believes the opposite is true, saying that he thinks his car is better suited to used tires. Running new in the last run of the day he said that he made too many mistakes and lost time to Dominic as he struggled once again with not having enough bite in the corners.

Completing the top 4, Sobue said the changes he had made to his prototype Infinity for Q3 were good however as the temperature came up he feels that new tires are now better again. Looking to the final qualifier tomorrow morning, where he can snatch the 2nd starting grid spot from Quek, the Japanese driver said he will bolt on some new tires and aim for a good points haul.

In the Hobbywing stock class Dominic Quek went 2 for 3, having taking Q2 earlier before going on to take Q3, both times from German Stock master Max Machler who has moved up to 3rd in the overall standings, behind Stick King who took the win in Q1.

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