Perfect day sees Orlowski hold overnight TQ in Bangkok

Delivering a perfect day of 3 TQ runs from the 3 rounds of qualifying, it is defending TITC Champion Michal Orlowski who holds the overnight TQ in Bangkok.  The Schumacher driver, who is running a new platform from the British manufacturer, completed Day 1 of qualifying with another TQ run ahead of main rival Bruno Coelho with Xray’s Jin Sawada delivering an impressive P3 for the round.  Axon’s Akio Sobue got a P4 from the second fastest heat which together with his P2 in Round 2 sees the 2-time Champion complete the Top 3 in the overnight qualification rankings.  Suffering a DNF in Q3, Simon Lauter is the top Awesomatix contender overnight in fourth ahead of team-mate Marc Rheinard, the German finishing out the day with another disappointing P5 to hold that position going into tomorrow’s final two qualifiers.  With the final 2 rounds of qualifying scheduled for the afternoon, today’s action happening in the first half of the day, there will be plenty of team drivers hoping the later conditions will allow them to turn around their TITC and secure a spot in Sunday’s main show.  In Open Brushless, it was also a perfect day for Lukas Ellerbrock as he brought home 3 TQ runs for Awesomatix and going into Day 2’s qualifying it is team-mate Olivier Bultynck who holds second with the Xpress of Top Seed Mongkolphan Lomrose sitting P3.

Summing up today’s qualifying Orlowski said, ‘It’s been weird having these conditions and people are struggling with them but my car has been pretty good.  We tried something very very small in that last one and I had two very big moments on the sweeper at the beginning which cost me a lot of time.  Pace wise the car was fine but I will already go back to my set-up we run last night which should be good for tomorrow’s qualifiers in the afternoon.  The finals are all different times of the day but we’ve been fast with the same car in these weird conditions all the time so for sure it’s a good place to be.  Only the Polish driver’s second TITC appearance he said, ‘I think last year the conditions were surprising consistent for everyone.  Before my first TITC everyone told me it changes so much here but I feel like it is just like it is at any other asphalt track with changing temperatures outside.  I mean this year maybe it is a little more inconsistent but I am not feeling it too much.’  On his moments in Q3 he explained, ‘it was just a slide, I turned in on the sweeper and my car just went sideways and I had to counter steer and catch it I think on the 3rd and 4th laps.  After that I used the minimum amount of steering to prevent that and it didn’t do it again.  I haven’t had this issue before so maybe this small change made this happen.’

Giving his reaction to the third round, Coelho said, ‘It was another solid run in terms of the result, in terms of how it went I had like 3 or 4 bobbles through the run.  I also needed to get used to the car because we changed it a little bit and I also had a new body, a brand new body which changed a little the feeling of the car driving wise.’   Asked about the body, the Infinity driver explained, ‘In Q2 I broke my body so I need to make a new one because yesterday night I broke another one.  I already had one ready and I was like OK I don’t intend to crash again and then today I broke another one so I had to make this one in a rush for Q3 and the position was a little different’.  On the set-up change, having crashed out in Q2, he said they ‘tried to make the car a little bit easier’ adding ‘the car was definitely faster now but was still a little bit difficult and tricky in the rear, which made me have some bobbles.  The middle of the run was very good for me and I was able to show the pace and be fast but we need to work more on making it comfortable to drive.’  Asked about the final two rounds, the World Champion who is chasing a record 5th title win this weekend, said, ‘Everything is still open.  The signs we have until now is the end of the day (conditions) is not really amazing for us, it’s more during the day and hot temperatures so lower traction is better for us.  But set-up can surprise us and maybe the car will be good for that run.’

Feeling better today having suffered from heat stroke yesterday, Sawada was very pleased with his P3 run.  Suffering an ESC issue in Q1, intermittent boost making it challenging to drive, he fitted a new one for Q2 with same settings but said it had too much power which made his car difficult to drive.  For Q3 with the power adjusted to his liking, he said the car was good but he did have a driving error on his second lap without which he felt his result could have been even better.  Overall he said after the difficult start to qualifying he was happy to finish strong.  Looking to tomorrow, the 25-year-old, who needs another strong run to repeat his 2024 A-Main appearance, said, ‘I like the night time conditions so I think on that side it will be OK.’

Asked how his final qualifier of the day went, Sobue said, ‘I think good.  It was good for the first day of qualifying.  My car was more difficult in these conditions so I need to be more smooth and careful with my driving, and not overheat my tyres.  I drive safe mainly for the tyre as I know I need to do the 5-minutes and not overheat them for a few fast laps.’  Feeling a little unwell going into Q3, the 2020 & 2018 Champion said this led him to make a ‘many small’ mistakes costing him ‘a few seconds’ so to get P4 he was ‘still happy’.

‘Again not a result I wanted’, was how Rheinard described Q3.  The 3-time Touring Car World Champion continued, ‘The car didn’t feel right, it was not balanced left & right.  I was getting loose to the right and pushing to the left.  I checked the car and everything was good so I hope tomorrow is going to be better and I hope my other sets (of tyres) I have are better.’  He concluded, ‘It’s a bit disappointing because the pace was there to do better but now I am really kind of fighting for an OK spot in the main.’