Polito back on the top again in Q3
Mattia Polito was back at top of the time sheets at the SIGP, the Sworkz driver setting the pace in the 3rd & penultimate round of qualifying in Xiamen ahead of fellow countryman Davide Ongaro. After TQ’ing the opening round, a bad set-up would lead to two crashes in the second round leaving the Italian with a P3 as David Ronnefalk TQ’d from Ongaro. A crash on the first lap was the start of a rough Q3 for Ronnefalk, his Xray eventually ending up 5th fastest. Out front, Polito just missed out on doubling up on being the only driver to run 13-laps of the challenging track, his only blotch in Q3 an off track excursion that cost him less than 2-seconds. In the end he would have 2.7-seconds on Ongaro with Bruno Coelho enjoying his cleanest run yet to record his first Top 3 time. Making his SIGP debut along with Ongaro and Polito, 18-year-old Gabriel Astorino had a strong run to the fourth fastest time 9-seconds off the TQ pace.
‘It was good and clean expect for one mistake’, was Polito’s reaction to Q3, him lucky that he didn’t need to be marshalled as he was able to drive his own way back onto the track. With his car back working after they raise the rear end back up again, the 21-year-old added, ‘I want to try different shocks. Before I used 6-holes but for the last round I will try 8-holes. The rest I leave the same.’
Summing up his performance Ongaro said, ‘It was close with Mattia but then I had a stupid crash after the straight, so I lost about 3, 4 seconds, I was there with him anyway it was better definitely.’ Making diff oil changes after Q2 ask how these were, the World Champion said, ‘It was better for me. The car is more consistent and for the bumps I think it is better.’ Looking Q4, the 23-year-old, ‘on the car I will make no change but we will try something different on the tyres.’
Looking a bit more upbeat that he was after Q2, Coelho said, ‘It was better than the one before. I think I recovered like 15-seconds so its a big improvement, it is also easy to make 15-seconds less. Still I did one big bobble which cost me the TQ, because I was super fast. The progress is happening so lets try to keep that moving.’ On his car and any set-up changes he planned for the fourth & final qualifier, the former 1:10 Offroad World Champion said, ‘now we are just working on small changes.’
‘I’m happy because I had a good feeling with the car now’ was how Astorino summed his run to the fourth fastest time. The Italian WIRC said a shock change after Q2 had left him with a buggy that ‘was much better on the jumps and the slow corners.’ For the final qualifier, he is considering a further shock change as well as his diffs as he feels he is going in a good direction with the changes made earlier. Suffering one mistake in the run when he took a jump wrong, he said it didn’t cost him much time or result in him needing to be marshalled.
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