Ronnefalk fastest in first seeding round at WC
After two days of free practice, today drivers finally got down to some serious business at the IFMAR 1:8 Offroad World Championship with the first of the two seeding rounds that saw Xray’s David Ronnefalk set the pace on the sloping RC Redovan track. The 2016 World Champion was almost a second faster than the Team Associated of defending World Champion Davide Ongaro with Elliot Boots completing the Top 3 for Sworkz. Overall it was a good start to the day for Xray with Bruno Coelho posting the fourth fastest time just ahead of WIRC Racing’s Marco Baruffolo. Having set the pace both on Sunday & Monday, hotly tipped race favourite Juan Carlos Canas opened the day with a P6. The back to back reigning European Champion won the first of those title at the RC Redovan track.
Summing up his first seeding effort Ronnefalk, who was runner-up here 2-years ago said, ‘The first one was good but it started a bit weird ’cause I changed the car from yesterday to today and it was a little bit different to drive. It was struggling to hit apex of corners ’cause my brakes were too soft and it was understeering but then the tyres broke in just enough to have the right amount of grip I would say and from 3-4 laps into the run to the end I felt really strong’. The Swede continued, ‘I was able to put 3 laps together and it was enough for the top spot by a second or so. Definitely happy with that even though there is still some room for improvement in terms of drivability the car is fast now it is just a matter of fine tuning the small little details here and there.’ Asked about the track layout change required as part of RC Redovan hosting back to back World Championships, he said, ‘I think the track is nice it’s definitely a little easier than the previous layout they had here but still there are some tricky sections were you need to be able to carry the speed, car needs to carry a lit of corner speed on this layout, lots of 180s were you need to have the right amount of steering without car scrubbing speed to much. I think set-up on this layout might be a little more critical to have every close to perfect. Track flows nicely and I like it.’
The hottest day drivers have experienced so far in the South of Spain, Ongaro was pleased with how his track time was going so far stating, ‘It was good. I think they put some fresh glue on some corners because my car was different from yesterday. Overall I am happy. I just try to find the 10-minutes, I don’t care about the three laps. Comparing the layout on which he won World title two years ago to the new layout he said, ‘I think it is easier to learn but more difficult to go fast, it is more critical. We are trying to chase how the track is changing, we change something for the second seeding and we see, so far so good.’
Winning the second of his two European Champion titles here at RC Redovan in 2016, Boots was happy with his Reds Racing powered Sworkz. The British driver said, ‘We got 3rd in first one the car was feeling really good and comfortable. Going to make a few minor set-up changes just to see if we can extract a few more tenths but it’s very close between a few people. The layout is a bit different but we have a good feeling of the surface. It’s hard to say, it could go like Euros way when it went really black line and got more grippy or it could go polished like it did when we had Neobuggy here a few years ago. We have to see. At the moment it is in the trending stage of which way is it going to go so we just have to keep an eye on it. We’re in the mix, we’ve been in the Top 5 all week so far, I know its only 3-laps but we also feel good over the full run’.
Asked how he was finding the early going here at the 19th running of the World Championship, Coelho said, ‘We are still kind of learning the track finding some 10ths here some 10th there but it’s looking very good.’ Asked how the track was developing, the first seeding run the 7th time drivers got out on the track, he replied, ‘The track is changing for sure’. The Portuguese driver continued, ‘When we started there was only glue so grip was super high now it feels like the grip is a little bit lower but at the same time there is more corner speed. Times are faster but soon I think it will get more oily and we will need to change tyres for different compounds which will again change everything. I am confident because we are doing pretty well on these changes since the beginning, the pace is there I was never so ready like now in the past so I am pretty confident. Small changes now, previous days we have been changing a lot now only small changes ’cause car is on point almost. Last round I just missed to make third lap with small bobble. I had fastest lap which proves car is fast and my 10-minutes was also really good- 3 consecutive laps were not amazing.’
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