Rheinard holds overnight TQ at 1:12 Worlds
With Day 1 of qualifying complete at the 1:12 World Championship, it is defending World Champion Marc Rheinard who holds the overnight TQ in Florida. The Awesomatix driver wrapped up the day’s action at Beachline Raceway with by backing up his Q2 performance with a second TQ run in the third round. Having taken Q1, Michal Orlowski was looking on target for repeat performance until he bounced his Schumacher off the boards promoting Rheinard to the top of the timing screens. A strong recovery that even Rheinard admitted caught him off guard, would see the Pole getting to within 0.493 of a second by the end of the 8-minutes. Overall the Polish ace holds second in the qualification points ahead of Kemp Anderson and Alexander Hagberg. Hagberg would end the day with his best performance setting the 3rd fastest time and together with his two P4 runs from earlier, the former World Champion gets promoted up to the top heat grouping for Day 2 of qualifying.
While claiming another TQ run and pleased to be holding the overnight TQ, Rheinard again wasn’t happy with his own performance. Chasing a third title in 1:12 to go with his 3 Electric Touring Car World titles, on Q3 the German said, ‘It was a horrible start. I hit the curbs and went into the wall. I was thinking ‘what are you doing’ and then it took me 3-4 laps before I got into my rhythm because I was pissed’. Having heard the impact of Orlowski’s crash that handed him the lead just inside the half way point of the qualifier, he said he never expected him to recover so fast explaining, ‘I was in comfort mode and just trying to control the race to the end without any more mistakes. When I heard he had close the gap to 1.3-second I went ‘Oh shit, and had to push again’. Asked about his bad starts in Q2 & 3, Rheinard said he needs to look at his warm-up laps. He said, ‘I am not even doing one lap so maybe I need to do another lap to get the tyres in the groove. Michal does one really fast lap and a slow lap but I need to check my run time’. Asked if run time is an issue he replied, ‘It seems ok but it’s kind of close’ adding, ‘when it goes it doesn’t slow down it just completely stops’.
Despite his mistake, Orlowski said, ‘I was happy to be so close to him in the end’. Finishing 0.493 behind after losing 1.6-seconds on his tap out on lap 25, he said, ‘I pushed as hard as I could to catch Marc but the car was a little loose on one side after the crash’. Asked about the crash, the impact echoing around the Beachline Raceway indoor venue, the 2020 World Championship Top Qualifier said, ‘I had a good lead but made a mistake at the chicane. It’s a part of the track that is difficult for all of us’. Looking to Day 2 of qualifying, 3 more rounds to be completed, Orlowski feels, ‘we need to find a little more to beat Marc’.
His best run in terms of ranking but a slower time than his opening qualifier, Hagberg said, ‘problems with traffic cost me time’. He added, ‘the first two minutes were good but when Donny (Lia) crashed and I lost my concentration’. Having made huge progress in Q2 posting a P3 Lia’s crash was one of the loudest of the day. With the traffic and loss of concentration, on his lack of pace Hagberg said, ‘I don’t know if it was my driving or the car but we will look at something to get the car to maintain better pace to the end (of the heat)’. On a positive the 8-time European Champion said, ‘I’m in the top heat tomorrow so don’t have to worry about traffic’.
Fourth fastest Kemp Anderson rounded out the day with a P4 run after a third in Q1 and second in Q2. The leading US challenger here at the 21st running of the 1:12 Worlds said, ‘I’m happy to be sitting 3rd overall right now, we have 3 more goes to try and move up’. On his Q3 performance he said, ‘The car was alright, it felt like it did in Q1 but I had a few driving errors. We will work in the car and find more speed’. Asked where he hoped to get the extra pace from he said, ‘It’s a little pushy still so we’ll try to get more steering but its a balance to keep the stability and not make the car more hard to drive’.
A multiple 1:12 Worlds finalist and finalists at last year’s Touring Car World Championship in Italy, Hayato Ishioka finally showed some form in the final qualifying. Getting a fifth for the round, the Roche driver said they improved the car step by step over the day and much improve traction in Q3 has the Japanese driver feeling confident of a better Day 2 of qualifying. Holding P7 overnight, he said they have found a good direction with the set-up today and that was reflected by his fastest lap of the day coming in Q3.
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