Sobue takes opening 2 qualifiers in Singapore
Having topped seeding, Axon’s Akio Sobue has showed no signs of letting up on being the pace setter at this year’s Electric Singapore International Challenge (eSIC) as he took the opening two rounds of qualifying at the annual race. With main challengers Nicolas Lee and Alexander Hagberg both sitting out Q1, Hagberg more forced than opting, the first of the four scheduled qualifiers opened with Sobue leading an Axon 1-2 ahead of team-mate Hayato Ishioka with Chinese National Champion Jerry Dai completing the Top 3. With all the eSIC contenders back on track for Q2, Sobue proved Q1 was in fact a true indication of the Japanese driver’s speed at the controls of his new TC10/4 as he held off Lee to go two from two by a margin of 1.3-seconds. After missing Q1 due to his huge off in seeding, Hagberg proved he had rebuilt a good car being the only one to match Sobue in posting a 13.6-second fastest lap time. A spin however from the Swede in the second minute of the qualifier ended that challenge and he registered a P7. The benefactor would be Ethan Cheng, the Xray driver adding a P3 to go with his P6 from the opening round.
Summing up his performances, Sobue said, ‘In Q1 the track condition was still changing a lot but my car was still easy to drive and was good for the 5-minutes.’ Happy with the consistency of the car, he continued, ‘Q2 I used new tyres because Nicholas and Alex used new tyre and I also I don’t want to keep tyres and play like this. I had good pace but so did Alex until he made a mistake. I thought he was out then but then saw he kept going.’ Looking to the remaining qualifiers, Q3 & 4 due to be completed today due to chances of rain in the morning, Sobue said he will leave the car unchanged but will run used tyres. Best of the drivers on used tyres in Q2 posting a P4 run, team-mate Ishioka is also enjoying the performance of his new car opting to run an unchanged set-up since seeding. With a set of tyres in hand, the Japanese driver has the potential for a TQ run in the final two rounds.
Making a strategic decision to skip Q1 to save tyres, on his second round qualifier Lee said, ‘Overall today I think we have less grip because of the rain but I think it effects us more than the others’. The Xray driver continued, ‘I think we need to find more grip today from the car set-up.’ Asked if had any idea on what changes he would make he replied, ‘I think I will go with what Alex is running because he was pretty fast in the last round.’
Asked how his rebuilt Xray was after its high speed off in seeding, Hagberg said, ‘It was alright. I think it was very similar to how it was before. I rebuilt the car completely with probably 60% new parts. It felt OK and I was running second but I made a stupid mistake over a bump and onto the grass which cost be at least a second.’ Asking about Q3 the former multiple World and European Champion said, ‘we are going to try and collect some points and make sure first of all we have a result and then we can try to push forward.’
Giving a run down on his opening qualifying efforts, Cheng, who has contested all 3 editions of eSIC, explained, ‘I had a small crash in seeding and I think after that my car was tweaked. For Q2 I checked everything and changed everything new and the car felt a lot better, there was a lot more grip.’ The 19-year-old, who like fellow Singaporean Lee switched from Yokomo to Xray for the 2025 season, added he is really enjoying his new Xray chassis with the inaugural eSIC Open Brushless Champion aiming to better his previous two Modified class results at RCMC.