MIBO International TQ double for Zalewski
Xray talent Bartek Zalewski will go for the buggy double at MIBO International as the Top Qualifier in both 2WD and 4WD. The Polish racer who is the reigning 2WD Champion of the annual Czech event and the 4WD Champion from the year before, will chase his first double title looking to emulate Bruno Coelho’s achievement at inaugural running of the race in 2023. Zalewski had the perfect event up to Q3, when Schumacher’s Michal Orlowski knocked him off the top of the timing sheet for the first time by delivery the TQ run in both 2WD and 4WD after a not so great start to qualifying. While Orlowski would of course liked to have push the TQ battle to Sunday morning’s fifth & final qualifier, Zalewski produced the fastest runs of the day in Q4 to lock in pole position for the triple finals. Daniel Kobbevik however push him hard in 2WD missing out by just 4/100ths and the Schumacher driver holds P2 overnight in both classes. In 2WD Sworkz’s Micha Widmaier sits in P2, the Austrian back up his second fastest time in Q2 with another in Round 3. Orlowski is tied on points with team-mate Kobbevik in 4WD but with the Norwegian having the faster individual qualifying time he is ranked 3rd.
Reacting to his double TQ after a close very 4WD encounter, Zalewski said, ‘In 4-wheel I felt some pressure from Daniel because we finish I think 4/100ths of a seconds between us. In 2WD I had a confident qualifier and I am very happy to grab overall TQ in both classes.’ With Q5 now only a formality for the 19-year-old, looking to the finals he said, ‘obviously Daniel is a threat but I also expect pressure from Michal and Micha in 2WD also, he is going well and is there.’ Super confident in both his Xray buggies he said any changes for the finals will be really small and his focus for the Mains is to ‘just drive clean finals and I should be fine.’
Still chasing his first MIBO win having twice been a Top Qualifier in Hrotovice, asked about the end to Saturday’s qualifying action, Kobbevik said,’ I had one DNF in each class today so it was nice to get a good run in both for the last one.’ A double runner up to Zalewski at the MKGP in the UK earlier this month, he continued, ‘In 4WD it was super close in the last one. I had a clean run starting in the back in traffic but the car was much better now. We changed the whole and that help a lot. It was a bit difficult to drive as I told you earlier so we went a different path with the set-up and it seems like that is better. So I think we are looking strong for tomorrow.’
Widmaier was positive about his day saying, ‘I am super happy with my Q3 run in 2WD. I just put on new tyres and tyre to make no mistake. Asked if he achieved that the Austrian replied, ‘I lost a little time on lapping cars but I made no mistakes.’ While he suffered a DNF in Q4, being in the fight for P2 on the grid asked if he felt he could get ahead of Kobbevik he said, ‘I mean it is super tight and it will be difficult but for sure I try my best and push hard in Q5 to see whats possible but I would say if I am in the Top 3, Top 4, in 2WD I would be super happy.’ On 4WD, he said, ‘I did P3 in the last round so now I have a 4th and a 3rd and something like a 10 so same like 2WD I will push hard in Q5 and see what we can get.’
Asked about his final two efforts of the day, Orlowski said, ‘I just had to lets say run the less preferred tyre strategy to use new tyres earlier because of the poor first rounds of qualifier. We got some good points but to be on Bartek’s pace we all need to push super hard and go above the limit and then we are going on two wheels or making some small mistakes.’ He continued, ‘I think now we just need to pull some magic out on the track and start behind him and hope for a mistake. I don’t think we can do anything more with set-up.’
