Urbain takes Q2 from Coelho at Asia Touring Car Championship

Lucas Urbain has TQ’d the second round of qualifying at the Asia Touring Car Championship, the Awesomatix driver making the most of the challenging track conditions to top the times ahead of Top Seed Bruno Coelho and Akio Sobue.  With rain preventing any action at Hongyu GDC track yesterday, while a dry start to Sunday conditions would be much cooler and windier than Friday when it was Infinity’s Naoto Matsukura who took the opening TQ.  With Matsukura posting a time of 19/5:07.597 in Q1, even with a round of free practice run to open the day and get some rubber back down on the track, Urbain’s TQ time this morning was almost half a lap slower with the French driver running 19/5:14.210 with Coelho just 0.145 behind.  The top heat would see mistakes from a number of drivers including Matsukura who ended up P7.  Schumacher’s Michal Orlowski also had a spin, after which he said his car was OK as he held station on track with Urbain, but the almost 21-second lap 3 meant his time was only good enough for P6.  Another strong run from Infinity’s Ryosuke Yamamoto saw him back up his Top 3 in Q1 with a fourth ahead of Axon’s Hayato Ishioka.

‘It was the radical opposite of Friday’, was how Urbain summed up Q2.  He continued, ‘my car was far too safe this time.  It felt good off the line but after I think 1-2-minutes I overshot the corner and I had to go full lock to recover and that is never good news on this track because I could feel my front tyre dropping and dropping, especially the last two laps.  I was struggling to make the car turn. ‘  He added, ‘I knew I was somewhere in front despite the lack of announcements because I knew my car was good & strong and it was a matter of keep going and maintain some sort of a gap.  It was up to .5 (of a second) at some point and Bruno caught up to 4/10th to finish 1/10 behind, thankfully it was enough.  It will need some changes to make it aggressive and more on the noise for Q3.’  On the track conditions today he said, ‘It’s windy and cold but for some reason it effects the balance in a different way we are used to because the more traction the more the car seems to be on the noise and now with lower grip it seems to make the car more stable for some odd reason, which is the total opposite to what we are used too.  I guess it is what we have to plan for and try to figure it out.’  He concluded, ‘I have changes in mind so it should not be too difficult to make it they way it should be for now.’

The defending Champion of the renamed FEMCA Championship, this race the biggest racing accolade in the Asian racing scene, Coelho summed up Q2 with, ‘It was a solid run, no mistakes.  The car was a bit pushy.’  The 3-time back to back World Champion continued, ‘We made some changes for the conditions because today is much less traction than the previous days so we tried to make the car easier to drive but it was way too easy to drive.  So it was pushy and slow.  I wasn’t able to make the first place but we will try to make it a little more aggressive for the next one but the conditions are quite difficult out there.  You can see many guys doing mistakes so we can’t risk changing too much.’

Reacting to performance, Sobue said, ‘It was OK, the car is getting better but it was a little bit difficult with the conditions with it windy and also dusty on the track.’  The World Championship podium finisher continued, ‘I am happy with P3 but for sure it was not easy.  On the first lap and the last lap I had some mistakes and big lose in lap time so I think, while not easy, I can fight the top guys.’  On Q3 he said, ‘For sure I try more set-up changes and see what we can do for the finals.’

Asked about his run, 2014 World Champion Matsukura said, ‘The first lap I had a spin.  I changed the set-up for the conditions and the rear had no traction.  It was only the first lap, the second lap the car felt OK but then after 3-minutes it’s like no traction.’  He added,  ‘I made a little mistake and Akio passed on my inside so I got outside then after I come back on the line I had no traction.’  Looking to Q3, the final qualifier, the Infinity driver said, ‘I need a completely different set-up.  The track is different today, after 3-minutes it is not only a drop in the tyres but also my car is loose so it’s difficult.  We will try to make more traction in the rear and lets see how that works.’