Matsukura takes A1 in Beijing

Naoto Matsukura has won the opening A-Main at the 1:12 World Championships in Beijing.  After shadowing Top Qualifier Marc Rheinard for 3-minutes, the former champion went to the front as the defending champion got sideways right in front of the drivers stand. With Rheinard then left to fend off Sobue, the touring car team-mates coming together, it was clear that the German was struggling.  With Sobue eventually getting through, Rheinard would drop to fifth by the end of the 8-minutes with Hideo Kitazawa getting through for third as well as Keven Hebert.  An inspection of his Yokomo afterwards would find the diff had broken in Rheinard’s car.

‘Perfect’ was Matsukura’s reaction to his win over fellow Japanese driver Sobue.  Describing his Roche as ‘really good and super easy to drive’, a fact highlighted by his 12.049 fastest lap of the final, the 22-year-old said, ‘I stayed second at the start to be safe and then Marc made a mistake and I could take him in the inside.  After that I could just go away’.  Building up an advantage of over 5-seconds as the race reached the final minute, the 3-time champion who lost his title to the no.2 starting Rheinard at the last Worlds, said for A2 ‘I just try to do same again’.

‘Undriveable, I couldn’t even hold it on the track’, was how Rheinard summed up a disappointing A1.  He continued, ‘I didn’t feel right from the start and just got worse, something broke’.  With close friend Marc Fisher, who is here for the Touring Car World Championship and himself an accomplished 1:12 driver, breaking the news to him that the diff was broken, Rheinard took some consolation from the news and with a fresh diff for A2 will be hoping to get his title defence back on track.

Having struggled to keep ground with the Top 2 initially Sobue said for the first three minutes his CRC ‘pushed a little’ but then got good up to the 5-minute mark before it started to get loose again. Moving up to second on Lap 24 of 39, the 1:12 World Championship debutant plans to adjust the rear wing on his Protoform AMR bodyshell in the hope this will give him a more competitive car for the next one.

Having said he would attack for position in the final 2-minutes, and on paper that was how it worked out for Kitazawa, in reality the Morotech driver got third because of Rheinard’s problems.  Unable to keep pace with the Top 3, dropping back quickly, the 2014 Podium finisher admitted ‘the top 3 are a little faster’.  He continued, ‘I need more steering so I will leave the additive on longer (for A2)’.  Behind Kitazawa, Kevin Hebert would finish 4th just ahead of the struggling car of Rheinard.

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Rheinard Top Qualifier at 1:12 Worlds

Reigning Champion Marc Rheinard will defend his 1:12 World Championship from the best position possible, the Yokomo driver claiming the honour of Top Qualifier in China this morning.  Having kicked off the final day of the 18th running of the championships with a second TQ run in Q5, the German initially looked set to take pole position with the perfect score of 0 points as he set the pace in the sixth & final qualifier.  On target for a 40-lap run with 4 of the 8-minutes complete, a mistake in the fast chicane on the right side of the track would put him out on the spot as he popped off a trailing link.  With Akio Sobue, the only one who could deny Rheinard the overall TQ, the new pace setter Rheinard would have to watch nervously from the drivers stand as his touring car team-mate looked on target to beat his Q5 which would have given him the overall TQ on the tie break but the CRC driver would make a mistake promoting Naoto Matsukura to the top of the timing screens.  Taking the round by 1.6-second from Sobue, Matsukura’s second TQ run would also see the Top Qualifier of the last four World Championship bump his fellow countryman back to third on the grid.

Posting his first fastest lap of a qualifier, Rheinard said of the final qualifier, ‘the car was good, I just made a stupid mistake’.  Commenting on Sobue’s pace, he said, ‘I knew it might be close but I knew the pace would drop off over the last two minutes’.  Asked about the finals, the 3-time Touring Car World Champion said, ‘We’ll see.  I hope I can pull away but a crash behind would help’.  He continued, ‘With Naoto starting behind me it is always not easy’.  Commenting on ending Matsukura’s run of 4-consecutive pole positions at the Worlds, he said ‘from four TQ’s he won three of four so the odds of the TQ winning are pretty good’ adding with a smile, ‘The only time he didn’t win from TQ was when I beat him’.

Pleased to move a head of Sobue on the starting grid with his Q6 TQ, Matsukura said his Roche prototype is ‘good’ but deciding on what to do with tyres was going to be the big thing for the final.  After running a bigger rear tyre in Q5 but traction rolling at the start, he said while the car was difficult for the first 4-minutes it was good for the last 4-minutes.  Reverting to a standard size tyre for Q6, he said while it gave him a ‘super easy’ car for the first 3-minutes it ‘then became a little loose’.  The 22-year-old said ‘I am still thinking what is the best option but maybe I can try something in between’.  A driver famed for his maximum attack racing style, the reigning Touring Car World Champion said, ‘For the first 2-minutes I safety drive.  I think me, Marc & Akio have higher pace than rest so we should pull away’.  He continued, ‘I will wait for a mistake, not force a pass’, all drivers agreeing the track has few places in which to attempt a pass.

Summing up his last qualifier Sobue said, ‘the first 2-minutes the car pushed and last 3-minutes it was loose’ adding it also lacked ‘initial traction’.   With a practice final the 1:12 World Championship debutant plans to use the track time to test a new set-up in the hope of finding better traction and stabilising the performance of the car over the 8-minutes.  Asked about his approach for the final starting behind Rheinard and Matsukura, he said his plan was going to be to ‘attack from the start’.

Having been on the podium with both Rheinard and Matsukura in Florida last time round, Hideo Kitazawa is aiming to ‘at least be on the podium’ again.  Starting one position higher than in 2014, when he got 3rd from 5th on the grid, the Morotech driver plans to play for the first 6-minutes and then ‘in the last 2-minutes is my best to make places’.  While he would go crashing out of the final qualifier, the Futaba employee said his car was ‘perfect’ and he will ‘leave it the same’ for the opening final.

Completing the top half of the grid, Keven Hebert feels he ‘can fight for 3rd’.  The Team Associated driver tried more camber in the final qualifier which gave him more steering but caused the rear to start ‘steeping out a little’.  Getting a P4 for the round, which would count as one of three scores, the Canadian said overall his RC12 is a ‘good safe car for the main’.  Finishing 5th from 9th on the grid 2-years ago, he said, ‘in qualifying we saw everything can happen.  There are fast cars but they keep crashing’.  Hebert’s team-mate Juho Levanen, who was borderline for making the main show going into the final qualifier, posted a P6 in the final qualifier to put himself 9th on the grid ahead of JJ Wang in a final that has no less than 6 Japanese starters.

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Rheinard doubles up in Q5

Marc Rheinard has become the first driver to double up in qualifying at the 1:12 World Championships in Beijing.  Having ended Day 1 of qualifying by becoming the fourth different driver to top the times when he took Q4, the Yokomo driver picked up were he left off to open the final day of the championship with a TQ run in the penultimate qualifier.  Posting a new fastest time, he would be 3-seconds clear of Akio Sobue, the CRC driver now the only one who can deny the reigning champion the overall TQ.   After a bad start to Q5, Naoto Matsukura would recover to complete the Top 3 but the result means that the Top Qualifier of the last four World Championships will for the first time in his career not start the A-Main from pole position.

Commenting on his Q5 performance, Rheinard said, ‘I struggled a little at the beginning, maybe I was nervous because Akio was catching me’.  With the Japanese driver making a mistake he continued, ‘this gave me breathing room and then it was an easy run as I also knew Naoto was not in contention as he had a big mistake early on’.  Describing his car as working ‘pretty good’ to the end of the 8-minutes the German said he ‘drove smooth’ due to his car dumping in Q2 yesterday but on checking it afterwards said ‘all was good so I can push a lot harder’.

With drivers starting the day with a free practice run, Sobue said after finding the traction was too high for his car set-up , his CRC suffering understeer, for Q5 he applied more additive to his front tyres.   He said while this gave him a good car for the first two minutes he described the car for the final 2-minutes as ‘difficult’.  This lead to ‘2 mistakes’ and ‘many small touches’ with the piping.  Expecting traction to go down a little for the final qualifier, he plans to go back to yesterday’s tyre prep of using less additive on the front tyres.

Opting to run a bigger rear tyre for Q5, Matsukura would traction roll his Roche at the start of the qualifier.  The 3-time Champion said, ‘I think there is more traction in the track today so this and bigger tyres caused traction roll’.  Planning to go back to the same diameter rear tyre he ran all day yesterday, the reigning Touring Car World Champion feels he is driving better today.  Having led each qualifier only to crash in 3 of the 4 rounds while on TQ pace he said, ‘today me also good’.  He added ‘now I can’t make TQ but I will win last one for best start position’.

Posting a P4 to lock himself into the A-Main, Keven Hebert described it as a ‘conservative run’.  The Team Associated driver said his Reedy powered RC12R5.2  ‘pushed too much (for him) to keep up with the leaders’ forcing him to ‘drive safe’.  The Canadian will try to get more steering for the final qualifier concluding, ‘now that I have three good run I can us the next one to test some stuff for the final’.  Behind Hebert Japanese drivers Toto Ebukuro and Kousuke Suzuki completed the Top 6 ahead of JJ Wang and former Touring Car World Champion Jilles Groskamp.

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Rheinard takes Q4 to hold overnight TQ in Beijing

Reigning World Champion Marc Rheinard holds the overnight TQ at the 1:12 World Championships after he became the fourth different driver to top the times on the opening day of qualifying in Beijing.  Second fastest in the opening two rounds but retiring from Q3, the Yokomo driver finally took the day’s final qualifier after battles with both Naoto Matsukura and Akio Sobue, Sobue taking the fight to the line finishing 0.152 off the German.  Having allowed Rheinard into contention for a TQ run with two smaller mistakes, Matsukura would make bigger mistakes trying to retake control eventually pulling off in the final minute after a mistake that saw him cut the track.  With Matsukura out of the picture there were plenty more Japanese drivers in waiting with Hayato Ishioka finishing the day with his best run to complete the Top 3 ahead of Hideo Kitazawa who topped the previous round and holds 3rd overall behind Sobue.

While pleased to finish off the day with a TQ, Rheinard wasn’t celebrating a break through in performance saying, ‘Naoto is the fastest but he just crashes too much’.  The German added, ‘I’m not sure how the other cars look to drive but for sure mine is not good, it’s so hard to drive’.  Getting to run behind his Tamiya Touring car team-mate Sobue for a few laps, he said the Japanese driver’s CRC chassis with which he took his World title looks to have ‘really good rear traction’.  With two rounds of qualifying left and grid position seen to be key to the final with drivers agreeing the track layout offers few place for overtaking, Rheinard said, the pressure is now on him to get results tomorrow, him being Matsukura who has P8 as one of counting three rounds and currently sits fifth overnight.  In terms of his Muchmore powered YRX12, 3-time Touring Car World Champion said the plan for tomorrow was to ‘leave the car the same as today and just keep going’.

‘Maximum close’ was how Sobue summed up qualifying so far as he has the same points as Rheinard but sits second due to Rheinard having the fastest race time from his Q4 TQ.  While running somewhat under the shadows of Rheinard in touring car, Sobue’s aim is the overall TQ adding, ‘I need one more (TQ) run’. On Q4, the ETS podium finisher said the traction was a little higher causing his prototype CRC to understeer adding as a result of this it was ‘not so fast as before’.  Looking to the morning’s Q5, he said the current set-up should work fine but after that for the final qualifier they ‘need to see how the track conditions are looking’.

Declaring himself ‘happy’ to be sitting 3rd overnight, 2014 podium finisher Kitazawa said while his Morotech was ‘very good’ in Q4 the driver was less so.  Suffering a ‘driver mistake’, the 12th stalwart and multiple World Championship finalist said his biggest focus for tomorrow was to ‘get more sleep’ in the hope of having ‘better concentration’.  With all the drivers travelling between the hotel and the track by official bus this morning the 06:30 pick up had a lot of drivers looking the worse for the early start as they left the track on the 19:00 return bus.

Putting his Q4 performance down to a set-up change that gave his CRC more steering allowing him to push harder, Ishioka said while it was a good finish to the day with a Top 3 he was aiming to be placed higher than the fourth he holds overnight.  The Japanese National Champion, who was tipped by many as being a title challenger based on recent form,  said tomorrow he will run bigger diameter tyres with the aim of having an easy car with which to finish out the 8-minutes.

Becoming the only driver to record an 11-second lap in qualifying, posting an 11.972 in Q4, Matsukura said, ‘the car is ok I just push too hard’.  A driver renowned for his maximum attack driver style since he won the first of his 3-World title in 2008 aged just 15, the now 22-year-old said ‘maybe he needs to take a different approach tomorrow’.  With his Roche prototype becoming ‘super difficult after 4-minutes’, most drivers having such difficulties over the closing minutes of the qualifier, he said he would try make the car easier to drive but admitted there is maybe something to be gained from he himself managing the advantage he seems to be able to build up in the first half of the heat.

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