Coelho opens World title defence with Q1 TQ
Reigning World Champion Bruno Coelho has opened his Electric Touring Car World Championship title defence with a TQ run in the opening round of qualifying at Finishline RC Raceway in California. Having set the pace in yesterday’s free practice, the Xray driver carried that form into the opening two seeding rounds but in SP3 a traction roll would mean he would be the fifth car to leave the line in Q1 as arch rival Michal Orlowski got to go first. With the sun setting in Bakersfield, and temperatures dropping as the top heats went out on track, Q1 conditions would challenge all the drivers but chasing a third consecutive title it was Coelho who came out on top. Ahead of him on the track but behind him on the time sheets Orlowski’s Schumacher would stop the clock 1.3-seconds off Coelho. A further 1.7-seconds back Akio Sobue completed the the Top 3 for the first of the six rounds followed by Ronald Volker, Marc Rheinard and Alexander Hagberg.
Using one word to sum up Q1, Coelho described the run as ‘Difficult’. He continued, ‘the conditions out there were crazy. I think it was about adapting the car as fast as possible, I saw many people struggling and I think I immediately pass two people in front of me not because I was much faster than them but because they were struggling with the traction. I was kind of lucky at the beginning to understand immediately the car and get fast. The car was super fast but also very difficult to drive.’ The Portuguese driver who first made his name on the electric touring car scene at decade ago at the ISTC Worlds in Florida, continued, ‘The temperature we had now gave so much traction to the cars that set-up is completely different to what we run during the day and the problem is I don’t believe many people want to risk to change much the set-up for these conditions and instead opted to try control the car but it was very very hard out there.’ Looking to Day 3 of the event he said, ‘Tomorrow the track is supposed to be like all morning, less traction, so the car will be more round so even if you change the set-up now it will not work tomorrow morning we think. Sometimes it is a little bit of lottery and you need to be a little bit lucky but it was it is.’
Giving his reaction after Q1, Orlowski said, ‘That was the worst my car has been today and unfortunately for the most important run of the day. We made some changes and I think there are a few things I need to go back on from the previous rounds. I said to my team all day that Bruno keeps crashing in practice but come qualifying he will have a perfect run. He had a small mistake at the end but I lost a lot of time due to traffic in the middle so it would have been close but my car can be a lot better, I know what to do for tomorrow.’ Asked about the track conditions for Q1 he replied, ‘the track changes every round but they were tough conditions out there that time but I am happy to be fighting with Bruno for first because there is quite a gap behind us.’
‘I’m happy with third place and I get solid points’, was Sobue’s reaction to his opening qualifier. Running a prototype of Axon’s next touring car kit release, he continued, ‘The track now was super difficult to drive. At the beginning I was driving aggressive but after a few minutes I switch to more smooth driving but it was still difficult.’ Happy with his car in the hotter part of the day, the Warm-Up Race winner said he will leave his car unchanged for now and see what conditions the second Day of qualifying brings, 4 rounds on the schedule.
Asked how he felt Q1 went, Volker responded with, ‘Actually I was very unhappy with everything.’ The German explained, ‘I couldn’t get the potential out of the car so I was surprised I could somehow finish 4th because I struggled a lot with the conditions, they were tricky for everyone. I’m super excited to see our car is amazing when you look how Jacob (Cruz) performs in running an A heat. No one expected it, that’s one of the really positive things from the day.’ Asked more about his own Q1 performance, the 2016 World Champion said, ‘we didn’t get the package nailed for Q1 so therefore I can be happy to finish 4th because it didn’t feel like a P4. There was a lot struggle for a lot of guys but I’ll take P4 and I think there is room to close up to the front. I’m not sure how close we can get or if we can be right in the mix but we will see.’
With it 20-years since he won the first of his three ISTC World titles, that race also in the US, asked about his Q1 performance, Rheinard replied, ‘Horrible’. The Awesomatix driver, who turned 38 today, explained, ‘the track changed so much and I think with our car the window is for just three runs a day maximum when the heat is a little bit up but when it is getting cold the car pushes and it just squared up in the middle of the corner, I don’t know what it is. I think our car doesn’t really work in this conditions.’ Looking to tomorrow the reigning European Champion said, ‘It is the same as today, three runs probably in normal conditions and let’s call it the happy hour is going to be the same as today. It was really hard because it was just a flight to keep it on the track, the worst it has been for the weekend.’
In the Spec class Awesomatix’s top seed Simon Lauter carried his form into qualifying. The German would TQ the round by 3/10ths of a second over the Xray of Jan Ratheisky with 1:12 Spec World Champion Max Machler a distance third. Summing up the second day of action at what is only the second Worlds for the Spec class, Lauer said, ‘It was a perfect day basically. The morning practice was very low grip and we did not expect that but apart from this we topped every practice and the first qualifier. The car was very good so all in all a super good day’. On his Q1 performance he said, ‘I think it was not perfect from my side, the car was good but there is alway room for improvement. On this track I think the secret is to find the correct mix between a fast car and an easy to drive car ’cause it will never be both. You can see this watching the Modified guys as well because it is always snappy and very close to traction rolling and the main goal is to not make the car too easy to drive because then it will just be super slow.’ Asked more what he meant about the run not being perfect from his side, the back to back reigning European Champion and 2024 TITC winner explained, ‘I think it was a rather clean run, no big wobbles but sometimes with back markers you need to lift a little bit. It’s very hard actually the time you pass someone to pull away from him even though he should be slower because that’s why you pass him it is still quite a challenge but I think it was a good qualifying, not perfect but I’m happy.’
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