Another TQ run as Ripoll take Q4 just ahead of Catanzani

Xray’s Maxime Ripoll has become the first driver to repeat a TQ run at the IFMAR 1:8 Onroad World Championship, the French talent opening Day 2 of qualifying in Chile with the fastest time for the fourth round ahead of Andrea Catanzani and Toni Gruber, the trio the only drivers who can now take the overall TQ honours.  A slightly warmer morning that yesterday in Santiago, Ripol would break 23-laps for the first time over the 7-minutes bettering Catanzani’s Q1 time by over a second, something that could prove key in deciding the Top Qualifier with the second two runs of the day normally proving slower.  With Ripoll’s advantage over Catazani’s Serpent 0.233 of a second, while he set the fastest lap for the round, it is his father’s performance in the pit lane that is the big talking point among his rivals, Team Ripoll making up over a second on refuelling.  Behind Gruber’s Capricorn, it was the two factory Mugen Seiki’s of Simon Kurzbuch and Shoki Takahata who completed the Top 5.  The two former World Champions said afterwards they just lacked pace this round, Kurzbuch reacting with, ‘Only 5th, I don’t know how to find the speed’, the Swiss driver adding they are going to have to try something different for Q5.

Reacting to his second TQ, Ripoll said, ‘All OK.  We didn’t change anything on the car but this morning it was maybe a bit more warm so it was more easy for me compared to (Q1) yesterday.  Now we just need to keep cool and keep going and get one more to secure the TQ.’  On his fuel stop the 19-year-old said ‘Ah it was super.  This time we gained 5/10h compared to our best yesterday.  We did 24,6 (seconds) and yesterday out of all the drivers the best was 25.1 so yeh super fast.’  With 2 rounds remaining he said the will go into Q5 with everything ‘exactly the same’.

‘It was a good run, a clean run, safe’, was how Catanzani summed up his first effort of the day adding, ‘we know the car works really good in these conditions but Maxime is really fast.’   The 20-year-old continued, ‘I am happy about the 2nd position because now we are little bit more safe (in terms of the Top 4) and have two more rounds.’  After issues during his pit stops yesterday asked how the refuelling went today he said, ‘It was OK.  Compared to the other ones it was better but compared to Maxime it was not so great.’  Having had a engine flame-out in Q3, asked about his engine today he said, ‘We took out that engine because we don’t the reason it stopped and just to be safe we put another one in and this is also really fast so I am happy.’

Ending yesterday’s action with a TQ run on Q4 Gruner said, ‘It was a closer race than compared to the first round yesterday and this was the best we can do for the conditions.  Now I am waiting in hope for the temperature of the track (to rise).’  Runner-up in Japan 2-years ago, the German added, ‘the feeling of the car was also better than yesterday in the first round but it still was not enough but we know the car is slow in the morning.  If you are 1-second behind for 7-minutes you sometimes need the race luck but yes we are looking forward to the next two.’