Leino takes 3rd qualifier at 200mm Worlds
After two difficult opening qualifiers, top seed Teemu Leino managed to put together a clean 5-minutes to TQ the third round of qualifying at the 200mm World Championships in Thailand. Top Qualifier of the previous Worlds, which also took place in the city of Bangkok, the HB driver topped the round ahead of the Serpent’s of Dominic Greiner and the Sahashi brother’s Yuya and Tadahiko. Fastest in the opening two rounds, Xray’s Alexander Hagberg would end the day with a fourth for the round with the evening conditions not suiting his NT1.
Having traction rolled in the opening rounds, suffering an flame out in Q2 as a result, Leino said this was just the nature of the Huge RC Circuit’s high traction. Pleased at being able to keep his R10 on four wheels on his third attempt, the Finn said with 4 out of the 6 qualifiers counting he needed to put in a safe round. Despite taking a ‘safe’ approach, he would once again set the fastest lap adding that he was very happy with how the car and his Novarossi was working. Needing 3 more solid point finishes he said for tomorrow the plan is to start off the day with an unchanged car.
While he managed to make his Serpent a little better, Greiner said he was ‘not happy with the car’. Having made a caster change for Q3, he said while it improved the Max powered 748 for the start of the run it ended up developing too much steering towards the second half of the 5-minutes. This would lead to the German traction rolling in the last minute resulting in a chunked tyre. Declaring himself out of the hunt for the overall TQ, that driver getting the only direct passage to the Main, he said for tomorrow’s qualifying he would work on getting a safer race distance set-up for a Top 10 qualifying position.
The older of the two Sahashi brothers, Yuya said an engine change gave him a better car for the third qualifier. Very happy with the set-up of his Picco powered 748 he was now more confident about tomorrow having struggled in Q1 & 2. The reigning 1:8 World Champion, Tadahiko said his run was really good until he made a driver error on the final lap which cost him about 1-second.
Hagberg said track conditions for Q3 were a little different to earlier and this resulted in his Orcan powered NT1 having less steering. Also having problems with traffic which caused the Swede to lose his rhythm, he said while his car is very good in the morning and afternoon, they need to work on a set-up for the evening.
Completing the Top 6, and sitting 3rd in the provisional overall qualification standings, Mark Green described his run as just a repeat of Q2 with the Serpent driver having little to report on the run. Behind Green, Nicholas Lee took his Xray to seventh, the Singapore driver like the British driver having little to say other than it was another ‘good safe run’.
Despite struggling with run time from his OS Speed engine, Xray’s new star Bruno Coehlo took 8th for the round. The 21-year-old said his NT1 feels really good but with run time ‘on the limit’ he is having to be very smooth with the throttle. Not want to risk making any engine changes the Portuguese ace said he will just continue to adjust his driving to get to the end of the 5-minutes. Behind Coehlo, Surikarn Chaidajsuriya and Simon Kurzbuch completed the Top 10.
Elsewhere having impressed with a P2 in the second round, Australia’s Jeff Hammon struggled following an engine change for Q3 but the Mugen driver has been given a new engine by Novarossi to try tomorrow. Defending Champion Meen Vejrak’s tough day didn’t relent with the KM Racing driver failing to finish Q3. It was a similar story for Dario Balestri, although this time he finished albeit 19th. Having been strong in practice yesterday, the Italian has been dogged today by run time issues something which appears to stem from him having to change exhaust on his XRD engines as the one he was running is not on the IFMAR list of approved exhausts.
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