September 15, 2022

Groskamp splits Xray’s in Q3, but Coelho still in control

After his battery issues in Q2, Jilles Groskamp has bounced back to become the first driver to split the Xray’s at the top of the times. The Infinity driver set the 2nd fastest time in the third round of qualifying with a 4/10th advantage over Alexander Hagberg but upfront it was Bruno Coelho who remained in clear control of proceedings. The only driver to run 19-laps as wind made for loose conditions, Coelho’s rivals have just one last chance to deny the reigning World Champion from defending his title from the TQ, few expecting any other outcome here in Gubbio.

‘I’m best of the rest as Bruno is too far ahead’, said a very pleased Groskamp as he returned to his pit table in the Infinity camp. The 2012 World Champion continued, ‘compared to the others we are doing really well and it is really nice to be in the mix’. Ask about his fix for his Q1 power issues, he replied, ‘we went to a bigger battery after the problem this morning to be safe. I had more power and it was consistent to the end’. He added, ‘I was a little worried the heavier battery would change the balance (of the car) but it was still really good.’

‘A solid run’ was how Coelho summed up his third TQ run. The Portuguese driver continued, ‘you could feel the wind a lot, some corners you had lots of steering and other you had less because of it’. He concluded, ‘the car is working well and we will try to keep it like that’.

Hagberg felt the start of his run was ‘not so good’ and that is something he will work on for Q4. Happy with his Xray through the 2-minute mark to 4-minutes, he said the lack of tyre warmers is making it difficult to get temperature into the tyres so he will make a set-up change to try get the tyres in come in quicker. The Swede added that the wind meant grip was lower than the first run of the day as dust was carried onto the track.

Posting a P4 for the round, Christopher Krapp said, ‘sadly changes didn’t go well. They didn’t suit used tyres.’ The Yokomo driver added, ‘they (Xray) seem to have the advantage in the amount of grip they have so we are trying to find more grip’. Describing the wind as a ‘huge problem at the end of the straight’ and making it ‘a gamble’ to make the corner, on his Q3 time he said, ‘we are still close and overall the result is OK as he are now safe for a Top 5 start, especially with the weather coming’. For Q4, he will change small stuff on the car.

Leading the home charge at these World Championship, Alessio Menicucci posted another strong P5 run. The Xray driver said the wind really effected the car at the end of the straight but overall contributed to a loose track as made the track surface dirty. Despite fighting the wind, he was happy with his driving describing the qualifier as a ‘very good run’.

Sixth fastest, his best run so far, Awesomatix’s Marc Rheinard said, ‘Sixth is a big improvement but only because everyone else crashed’. The 3-time World Champion said, ‘I am just drifting around the track. I don’t know how they (his rivals) have the grip. It’s not that I have no side-bite but I also have no forward traction. It’s like I am driving on plastic tyres’.

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September 15, 2022

Another Xray 1-2 in Q2 as rain stays away in Italy

Drivers at the IFMAR ISTC World Championship were greeted with a positive start to Day 2 of qualifying in Gubbio, Italy, as the much anticipated bad weather that caused so much controversy yesterday hasn’t yet arrived.  On a dry track, Q2 would be a repeat of last night’s opening qualifying as Xray again lead a 1-2 at the top of the time sheets.  A slightly slower time than Q1, Bruno Coelho stayed in charge with Alexander Hagberg backing up his surprise Q1 performance with another P2 from the second fastest heat.  Christopher Krapp made it an identical Top 3 with the biggest surprise of the round being Hayato Ishioka who posted the fourth fastest time ahead of Alessio Menicucci.

Asked about the 1st of the four rounds of qualifying on today’s schedule, Coelho said, ‘I was surprised when I woke up this morning and it was dry because the weather forecast looked not so good.  It’s good for the event to be able to continue in the dry’.  On his Q2 performance, the reigning Champion said, ‘it was a clean run and I just tried to drive with no mistakes’.  He added, ‘everything is going as we want. I don’t really have anything else to say’.

Summing up his qualifying, the gap to his team-mate smaller than in Q1, Hagberg said, ‘the car was good and I was comfortable for most of the run. I lost time at the end because I didn’t adapt my driving to the understeer than develops over the run.  Otherwise it was good’.  Looking to Q3, which is also expected to be on a dry track, the former 1:12 World Champion said, ‘I will stay the same with my set-up and focus on my driving’.

‘Again a solid run, again really close with Hagberg’, that was Krapp’s view on this morning’s effort.  The Yokomo driver continued, ‘Bruno is so far away it’s frustrating but now that I have two solid runs I am going to try some stuff on the car the to try and close the gap to Bruno.’  The German concluded, ‘Overall I am pretty happy.  Two 3rds is a solid start’.

Only 16th in Q1 due to mistakes that he contributed to both the driver and the poor light, Ishioka said Q2 was a much better effort from him.  Despite having a ‘good car’ for the first qualifier, the Japanese driver made some small suspension changes to his Axon from last night for the morning conditions.  For Q3, he said for now he is thinking of leaving the car unchanged and instead focus on trying to get another strong run in.

‘Today it helps to see the track’, was how Menicucci summed up his improvement.  He explained, ‘I struggled with the light last night and made lots of mistakes. I hit the dots and ended up on the grass’.  The Italian described Q2 as a ‘very clean run’ and said his Xray is ‘perfect’, so much so he plans to leave it unchanged for the next two qualifiers which should be dry with conditions for Q5 looking less ideal as the rain makes its way to Gubbio.

Completing the Top 6 ahead of Mugen’s Ronald Volker, Yannic Prümper lost power in the final two laps.  The Yokomo driver said, ‘I am running 5800mah batteries and it seems they are not enough for this track.  On the second last lap I started to lose power which cost me 6/10th over the 2 laps’.  Asked if he had other batteries he said, ‘No so I am going to have to ask around’.  In addition to his battery issues, the German said, ‘At the beginning (of the heat) my driving was not the best and this also cost me a few tenths’.   Prümper wasn’t the only one to have power issues with Infinity’s Jilles Groskamp dropping to 12th as his battery lost power. The Dutch driver said he knew in tech inspection the battery was not right when he saw the voltage but at that stage it was too late to make a change.

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September 14, 2022

Sparks fly as Coelho takes Q1

Sparks literally flew as Bruno Coelho took the opening round of qualifying with darkness falling on the opening day of the ISTC World Champions.  The top seed after practice, the reigning Champion would lead an Xray 1-2 from Alexander Hagberg, no one more surprised than the Swede with his P2 having been seeding the second fastest heat.  Finishing off practice with an ever improving performances, Christopher Krapp would set the third fastest time for Yokomo ahead of Schumacher’s Michal Orlowski, another driver running in the slightly less dark second fastest heat.  As cars went to the grid there was calls to not run the top heat as drivers complained about being unable to see.  Legendary mechanic Masayuki Miura would make a direct call to race officials for the qualifying not to go ahead saying his driver could not see.  Unfortunately that driver, Naoto Matsukura, struggled with the lack of light saw him crash out just two corners into the qualifier.

‘The sparks were the best thing we could see’, joked Coelho after his TQ run.  Asked about having to qualify in such low light, he said, ‘I have driven in worse conditions in the past but for sure this was not the best lighting’.  Topping the times by a massive 6-seconds, he said, ‘this was the first time to see how everyone was on 5-minute pace because of running 2 cars and tyre strategy in the practice.  My car was working pretty good and I was really focused on making no mistakes for the 5-minutes’.  Asked about tomorrow’s qualifying action he simple replied, ‘It will rain tomorrow’.

A very pleased Hagberg, said, ‘to be honest I was a bit concerned about qualifying because I couldn’t string 3-laps together in practice and because I had to drive conservatively for the tyres I had no idea what to expect over 5-minutes’.  The Swede felt the dark conditions meant he ‘drove a little cautious’ but overall it was ‘a really good start to qualifying’ that he had expected.  Admitting running in the second fastest heat meant they had a little more light he was more than happy to take the result.  Looking to Day 2 of the World Championships, the Swede said, ‘I will wake up tomorrow and see what the sky looks like.  It’s outside our control’.

Commenting on his P3 time, Krapp said, ‘I am happy with the position but it could have been 2nd.  I lost a place with traffic when Viktor held me up so I missed P2 by 2/10ths. I think Bruno is already away, but it is a strong start for us and now we just wait to see what the weather is tomorrow.  Hopefully it is dry because I have nothing prepared for the wet’.

‘Just lucky. It was dark but not as dark as the top heat where a few drivers made mistakes’, was Orlowski’s initial view on Q1.  The Polish driver then added, ‘I don’t want to take from our performance as we did improve the car so I am quite happy with P4 in the first one’.  He continued, ‘we don’t know what to expect tomorrow so we will play it by ear. I have Andy’s wet car all ready to go and we will use his (wet) experience to our advantage’.

Posting the fifth fastest time, Viktor Wilck described the opening qualifier as ‘very difficult’, adding, ‘the right side of the track you were driving almost just by feeling it was so dark’.  The Infinity driver added, ‘all the way in the hairpin you could not see the car. Our heat had the disadvantage of being more dark’.  Third fastest of those running in the top heat he said the performance of his car, which features prototype parts here in Gubbio, ‘was still really good’. Keen to build on that for Q2 he said, ‘we see what happens tomorrow in the rain’.

One of three Yokomo’s in the Top 10 for Q1, Nicolas Lee would complete the Top 6.  The Singapore driver said, ‘It was really hard to see but anyway the result is good points to start with’.  Only 20th fastest in seeding, he explained, ‘we changed a lot (the set-up) during the day and in CP2 we found a good balance which gave me a good car for Q1’.  Lee’s team-mate Yannic Prümper would set the 8th fastest time.

Setting the 7th fastest time and separating the two Yokomos, Jilles Groskamp was happy to take the result giving the difficult lighting.  The former World Champ said, ‘It was just too dark and I had too many small mistake’.  The Infinity driver added, ‘the end of the straight was just a guess and I had a few rough laps there.  The pace was really good but the conditions just made it so difficult to be consistent.

Top Qualifier at the last World Championship in South Africa 4 years ago, Ronald Volker would finish Q1 in 10th behind young Slovakian Xray driver Matus Benetin. The Mugen driver was on a Top 3 run but spun putting his hand up and admitting it was a driver error as it took place on the brightest section of the track.

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