Video – Qualifying Round 2

Coelho takes opening qualifier at TITC

Bruno Coelho has kicked off the defence of his TITC title in the best way possible by TQ’ing the opening round of qualifying at the iconic Bangkok race.  Second behind Ronald Volker in the single seeding round yesterday evening, the Xray driver reversed the order in the first of the four qualifiers by topping the round by 7/10th over the Mugen driver.  Held just after midday local time on a very hot track, behind the Top 2 there was a considerable gap.  The third fastest time was set by Alexander Hagberg who was closely followed by Marc Rheinard and Akio Sobue, the Top 5 all previous winners of what is widely regarded as the most difficult race in the world.  Making it five different manufacturers in the Top 6, Xpress team driver Yugo Nagashima put in the sixth fastest time.

Summing up his opening effort as ‘pretty good’, Coelho said, ‘the conditions are pretty hard because the asphalt is super hot today’.  He continued, ‘in the middle of the run my car was tricky to drive and I was just trying to keep it on its wheels but the last 4-laps I had to push hard to keep ahead of Ronald after he was able to close the gap I made at the beginning.’  Asked what his issue was mid run the Portuguese driver said, ‘the car is rolling too much.  It’s getting so hot.  We never drove in this heat yet so we need to work on the car for that.’

‘P2 is not a bad start and I had a small shot at the end to challenge Bruno’, was top seed Volker’s reaction to Q1.  He added, ‘He pulled a gap at the beginning but the last minute I was very close to him.  I was reducing the gap but then I caught two backmarkers and that cost me time as well as putting me out of my rhythm, I lost time but maybe it did not cost me anything in the overall result.’  A driver who openly admits that the RC Addict track has always tested him, the German said, ‘it was still enjoyable to challenge for TQ at RC Addict cause it didn’t happen in a long time.’  On his car, the former World Champion described it as ‘slightly difficult’ adding ‘the grip was a bit lower today, not by much, and they will make small adjustments for Q2 while also trying to judge what the tyres will do.

Hagberg said his run had a ‘couple of small mistakes’, the Swede highlighting a mistake on his first lap which he said caused him to lose his ‘confidence’.  He said overall his ‘speed was OK’ but he was ‘not able to challenge the Top 2’.  A two time TITC Champion, on his car he said, ‘in general my car is pretty good so I will just fine tune the set-up but I think it’s my driving I need to work on more’.

‘Slow but no mistakes.  The points are OK but pace & car wise it was not OK’, was how Rheinard summed up the first qualifier.  The multiple World Champion who has only won the TITC once in his illustrious career, way back in 2006, said, ‘It felt like I had no grip but still the car was trying to flip.  I had no feeling, the car felt like it had no connection to the track.’

Winner of the event in 2018 and again in 2020, Sobue was much happier with his car today.  P7 in seeding, the Axon driver said, ‘the car is better now.  We made a small change and the balance was better’.  He added, ‘The car is good but my driving was a little cautious at the start.’  The Japanese driver was also a little frustrated after losing time when he caught Rheinard and Lucas Urbain.  With Urbain having had a crash earlier in the run he said, ‘Lucas had a crash and I was faster driver (on pace) but he wouldn’t open for me.  I tried to make a pass and he didn’t open and I crashed into him and I lost a position’.  Encouraged by his car’s Q1 performance he said the plan is to ‘improve the driver’.

Seeded in the second fastest heat, Nagashima summed up his Q1 with ,’It was good, I’m happy’.  Running a number of parts that will form the next kit release from Xpress, he said they made a little change to the car from yesterday adding the the ‘hotter conditions are better’ for his car.  While overall liking the new track layout for this year’s TITC he said the chicane is ‘challenge’ given its high speed nature.

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