Kilic fastest in SP2, Kato maintains top seed status
He said after SP1 he felt his car would be faster for the second seeding round at the Philippine Masters and that turned out to be the case as Burak Kilic took his Nova Engines powered Mugen Seiki to the fastest 2-consecutive laps. Going one better than he did in the morning’s opening round, Kilic’s time however would not better than that set by Kouki Kato, that time still more than 2/10ths of a second faster around the technical track where currently 36.8-seconds are the benchmark lap times. Behind Kilic, Team Associated’s Alex Bernadzik set the second fastest time with an improvement of 5/10ths on his SP1 effort. Almost half a second off his morning time, something he put down down his tyre prep, Kato would complete the Top 3 ahead of his Infinity team-mate Naoto Matsukura who was much happier with his latest effort. Fifth fastest in SP1, Sworkz’ Mattia Polito again rounded out the Top 5 of the high qualify field ahead of the race’s defending champion Davide Ongaro.
Reacting to his run, Kilic said, ‘For me that was a good run. Actually I don’t look for my 2-laps I look for my consistency and it is really good for the moment.’ Using the same set of 6mik Dash tyres as SP1, he said they were much better as the reached proper break-in in the second run. Looking to the third & final seeding round, which brings Thursday’s action to a close in Manila, he said, ‘I will leave the car the same and I will break in one more set of tyres for the qualifying and the race and yeh that’s it. I am really happy at the moment. My car, engine and tyres work really good.’
‘The two lap pace was there. I was probably on another good 2-laps but had a bobble and tangle’, that was how Bernadzik summed up SP2. The Aussie added, ‘I went quicker lap time wise but my car was a bit hard to drive so I am going to make some changes and make it a bit easier and then see how we go in the last round.’
Giving a run down on his performance Kato said, ‘I changed the tyre prep and it was no good.’ Switching to a brand new set of Hotrace Saharas, the same choice he ran in SP1, this time prepared them differently by gluing the insert. The result of this was the Japanese National Champion ‘had too much traction’ and he will now revert to his regular tyre prep.
Naoto said the set-up he ended yesterday with was too loose in the first seeding round this morning but after changes he had a much better buggy for SP2. Adjusting the rear shock position and changing spring he said this made it better but he was still lacking something in the rear and for the next one he plans to try a different wing. Asked his thoughts on the track, the multiple onroad World Champion replied, ‘it’s high traction, it’s good. The jumps are the difficult part.’ He elaborated, ‘Always single jump is ok but the rhythm jumps are challenging. The problem is I only see the first jump, I am not looking ahead enough so its difficult but overall things here are going a lot better than at the Worlds. We have improved the car set-up and also me.’
Ongaro summed up his SP2 as, ‘It was good but at the same time not good.’ He continued, ‘I have the pace to drive 37 (second) laps but if I push any more the car will flip, so it’s not so easy to drive. I will try something different in the next one. I am just using seeding as a practice, I don’t care about the top seed.’ That said the World Champion did admit, ‘this time we were not as fast as Burak and Alex so we need a few tenths more’. Part of that missing pace was due to compound choice. The Matrix backed driver explained, ‘I don’t have many tyres so I say ok lets try something different and save the good ones’. During the run the Italian would have an unusual incident that saw him come in unexpected contact with fellow countryman Polito. With the Sworkz driver having had a flip, when the marshal returned the buggy to the track he threw it down on top of Ongaro’s in flight buggy which had just taken a jump, Ongaro finding the incident amusing as he explained what happened.