Coelho confirms he’s back in contention with 2nd TQ run

After a less than perfect start to his title defence qualifying, Infinity’s Bruno Coelho has confirmed, most importantly to himself, that he is back in the contention by ending Day 3 of the IFMAR ISTC World Championships in Thailand with a second TQ run.  The result means both Schumacher’s Michal Orlowski, the overnight TQ holder, and Coelho are the only two remaining drivers in contention for pole position here at Huge RC Circuit, with the sixth & final qualifier to be staged tomorrow morning ahead of the finals.  Taking Q4 when both Orlowski and Xray’s Marc Rheinard had mistakes, Coelho’s fifth round TQ ahead of his two protagonist endorsed that Coelho’s quest for a fourth consecutive World title is back on.  Another impressive run from David Ronnefalk would see the Buggy World Champion end the day with a 4th that’s secures him an A-Main grid starting position with last night’s Q1 winner Simon Lauter completing the Top 5.  Having celebrated taking the opening qualifier yesterday, and Lucas Urbain opening with a P3 in Q2 this morning, the rest of the day was challenging for Awesomatix in Modified.  In the Stock class however there was plenty for the second biggest manufacturer of these Worlds (Xray from official IFMAR stats the most represented brand here in Bangkok) with Awesomatix drivers dominating the action.  Olivier Bultynck opened the day with a TQ run before Lukas Ellerbrock added to his Q1 TQ by topping rounds 3, 4 and 5 to get locked in as the Top Qualifier.

Looking a lot more upbeat at the end of the day’s action giving his thoughts after taking Q5, Coelho said, ‘It is a very positive finish and a good way to go for tomorrow.  We found the way and this was a confirmation.  The round before we were kind of ehm not sure and I think this round was the confirmation we found the base.’  On his car and any changes between rounds, he said, ‘honestly I didn’t change anything from the round before to now I just felt more confident than before and I tried to start stronger and benefit from the tyres at the beginning and then just control the race to the end.’  Taking some time to come down off the driver stand after his TQ run asked about this he replied, ‘the referee just called me to basically say not really that he was sorry but to inform me that they gave a warning to Michal (Orlowski).’  Asked how he felt about getting passed his rival, he responded with, ‘on this I wont comment.’  Looking to tomorrow and the last qualifier before the 13th ISTC World Champion is crowned, Coelho said, ‘I think it is positive for sure.  I think we are finally where we worked for to be for the race and that’s real positive for tomorrow.’

Orlowski summed up the closing qualifier of the day with, ‘It was OK, Bruno is very fast at the beginning.’  The 1:12 World Champion continued, ‘My car is feeling OK, much better than last night, but I am not able to drive with confidence at the moment and we just have to think what to do for tomorrow.  The track will be different again.’  Asked if the morning suited his Schumacher better, the 25-year-old replied, ‘Maybe, but I think the pace is always there, like I had a 13.5 on the last lap, it’s just me being comfortable with the car for the whole run and in the morning & most of the day I am more comfortable.’  He added, ‘definitely the humidity went up tonight but yesterday Simon (Lauter) was super fast in this condition, Bruno struggled, and now it was different so people are changing stuff I guess.’  Having to open to let Coelho through in Q5, asked about the race referee’s call to open, he confirmed he asked him to but said it was too early and he opened up a lap later when he felt was the right time, however he said that got him a warning that he would get a penalty if he ignored the call again’.

‘I need to have at least one TQ to have a better chance to be further up but if I can stay P3 with say Michal first and Bruno second I think I am still in a good position so I am going to try to find some more’, that was Rheinard’s summary of the day.  The freshly turned 40-year-old continued, ‘we are lacking speed in the night time, the car is too easy, too stuck, so we could not get the right speed.  I thought in the beginning I lost time as I had a 14.0 on the first lap already so I drove bad but I thought in the end I am going to catch up again like I did the run before but in the night car is not free enough.  Q6 and the two first finals are in the day time so we will not make big changes but when it comes down to A3 we have to think about changing.  I just hope to stay in P3 which is all I can do now.’

A rather pleased Ronnefalk reacted to Q5 be describing it as ‘another great run’.   The Swedish offroad star explained, ‘I started up front this time so I could kind of follow the guys that are fast up front rather than starting at the back, then it is difficult to pace yourself.  So I followed Marc around the track for pretty much the 5-minutes and we kept the same distance so I knew I was on for probably a Top 5 if I just stayed there.  I tried to get him there on the last lap but I was 2/100ths of a second behind but obviously super happy because I got rid of my 11th place and swapped it with a fourth so that has me locked in for the show for sure.’  He added, ‘Right now if I had a Top 3 and Simon (Lauter) doesn’t improve I think I can even go ahead of him to be Top 5 on the grid but already super happy, the goal was to make the main and now anything can happy.’  Asking if his confidence with the touring is growing each round the Swede said, ‘for sure, as the car has got better with the changes we made for sure I feel very confident and I just know that I have a consistent car over the 5-minutes, maybe not the fastest on outright speed but I feel very good towards the end where other people seem to struggle a bit more.  It is just a matter of putting it together and keeping the car on the wheels and wait for those last 2-minutes when things can happen.’