Ronnefalk takes Q2 at SIGP
Xray’s David Ronnefalk has kicked off Day 2 of qualifying at the SIGP in China by taking the second round of Nitro Buggy. A much cooler morning in Xiamen, a clean run would see the Swede top the times by 1.3-seconds from a much improved Davide Ongaro while Q1 pace setter Matti Politi completed the Top 3, both Italians having mistakes. While having the fastest buggy on the track in Q2, it was another error filed run from Bruno Coelho, three costly mistakes over the 7-minutes leaving him with a P4. Backing up his Top 5 in yesterday’s opening qualifier, Joseph Quagraine again took his Mayako to the 5th fastest time ahead of the WIRC of Gabriel Astorino.
‘I just kept it on the wheels and had a good couple of opening laps’, was how Ronnefalk summed up his TQ performance. The 2016 World Champion continued, ‘Dad was informing what the others were doing. I got told Ongaro crashed, and next to me was Bruno on the driver’s stand and I heard he crashed by his reaction. Dad told me I had a 7-second lead or something so I stepped it down from that point. Because of his crash Ongaro was pushing a lot so he closed in for a couple of laps in the middle of the run. I had one lap where I almost threw it away twice but managed to keep it on the wheels but lost about 3-seconds so Ongaro got close. I had to push on the last lap to get the TQ. You can make the fast laps, it not an issue on this track but its going to bit you if you keep doing them all the time.’ Asked about track conditions today he said, ‘It was weird now cause eBuggy in the morning felt really grippy compared to yesterday and I had good grip so I kept the same tyres for nitro now and I felt already I had a lot less grip so its changing a lot. In terms of the bumpyness I don’t think it gets more, it was broken from the start, the surface is pretty consistent, what is changing is the grip level but it is nothing crazy but I probably would have went for a different compound for nitro if I knew the change would be so big.’
Having TQ’d the second round of eBuggy, asked about his nitro run, Ongaro replied with, ‘Better, better than yesterday and finally we found some pace in both cars. We continue working but I am happy and I also slept well last night which helps.’ Asked what details he was now focusing on with his car, Adrien Bertin wrenching on his buggies this weekend, he said, ‘we are working on diff oil mainly and tyres. We already found the right compound but the thread we are still trying options. We are working with Nebula and Neutron. We don’t have a lot of them so we have to switch them but both are working the same and in eBuggy I also tried the Blackhole because they put molasses on track and they worked good. We have three threads that are working.’
The star of yesterday’s action, taking the opening TQ with a clean run, Politi would suffer two mistake this time round. Asked about his Q2 performance, the Sworkz driver said, ‘I made two mistakes because the car was too low in the rear.’ With a faster lap time than both World Champion drivers ahead of him, the 21-year-old Top Seed wasn’t phased by being off the top spot on the time sheets for the first time since the event officially got underway and said he would just correct the rear ride height for Q3 and ‘all is OK’.
‘It was a tough morning but still a lot to go’ was Coelho’s reaction after Q2. He added, ‘it’s for sure not the best conditions for me as an onroad/offroad driver. I would prefer for sure the new tracks without any bumps and this is extremely bumpy so I am suffering a lot with my own skills basically.’ Fresh from winning the FEMCA Electric Touring Car title last weekend at the GDC indoor carpet track in Foshan, looking to take a positive from Q2 he said, ‘It is always nice to learn and experience different conditions, I think I never had such rough conditions but I have to learn.’ Asked about his buggy, he replied, ‘In both categories I think I was if not the fastest one of the the fastest around the track, I just need to be able to be more consistent for the whole run without so many mistakes. Probably I need to dial it back a bit.’
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