Bruno Coelho is 2019 SIGP Top Qualifier

Taking his 3rd round of qualifying, despite a mid run mistake, Bruno Coelho has locked down the top qualifying spot here in Xiamen at the 2019 SIGP. The Xray factory driver briefly lost the lead when he rolled his car, allowing Dominic Quek to the front but once back on his wheels he set about regaining the lead to take the win and with it pole position for tomorrow’s A-main finals. Quek was just half a second back in 2nd, also running the new Xray, while an improved Meen Vejrak completed Q3 in 3rd. Akio Sobue was 4th for Infinity while Nicholas Lee was fifth. Bruno said that they made a small suspension change which worked well despite the World Champion being on 3rd run tires. Asked abut his high speed crash he said that he only just gently clipped the curb which sent his car into what seemed like a slow motion roll before stopping against the back side of a curb. He was able to continue and regain the lead and with the TQ his he will use the final qualifier to test.

Dominic Quek has emerged as the most consistent of the chasing pack as he took his second 2nd place in qualifying and now looks set to start from that position, just behind his Xray team mate. Comparing his car to how it was this morning Quek felt his T4 2020 had improved a lot and has only made small changes to adapt to the changing traction conditions. ‘When Bruno crashed I was hoping he would lose 1 more second’, joked the Singapore driver, the pair separated by only 0.5 at the end. Asked if he would be happy with 2nd, he replied ‘2nd to Bruno is like 1st to me’.

Yokomo driver Meen Vejrak had a pretty terrible start to the day with a non finish in Q1 but his luck has steadily improved with a P4 in Q2 and finally a P3 in Q3. Not happy yet with the handling of his BD9, the Thai racer said that he thought his car would be better on new tires, but he now believes the opposite is true, saying that he thinks his car is better suited to used tires. Running new in the last run of the day he said that he made too many mistakes and lost time to Dominic as he struggled once again with not having enough bite in the corners.

Completing the top 4, Sobue said the changes he had made to his prototype Infinity for Q3 were good however as the temperature came up he feels that new tires are now better again. Looking to the final qualifier tomorrow morning, where he can snatch the 2nd starting grid spot from Quek, the Japanese driver said he will bolt on some new tires and aim for a good points haul.

In the Hobbywing stock class Dominic Quek went 2 for 3, having taking Q2 earlier before going on to take Q3, both times from German Stock master Max Machler who has moved up to 3rd in the overall standings, behind Stick King who took the win in Q1.

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Q2 Update

It was more of the same in Q2 as Bruno Coelho once again took the round, this time in a slightly faster time, however the gap back to 2nd place was a significant 7 seconds. This was partly down to both 2nd placed Dominic Quek and 3rd place Nicholas Lee misunderstanding the announcer and thinking they were finished when they were not. This cost Quek 3 seconds and Lee a huge 14 seconds but as only the top 3 made 22 laps runs they didn’t actually lose position for the round. Coelho had changed some small things for Q2, such as weight positioning but said it felt very similar to before. Continuing to change set-up each run as they try to learn their new car, for Q3 they will once again make some small tweaks as they aim to lock up the TQ early.

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Q1 in Xiamen goes to WC Bruno Coelho

The first round of qualifying for touring car is complete and it was top seed Bruno Coelho who emerged on top. With the World Champion in a league of his own, 4 seconds behind it was Akio Sobue followed by the Singaporean pairing of Nicholas Lee and Dominic Quek with Viktor Wilck completing the top 5. Commenting on his TQ run, each driver getting 3 rounds today, the Xray driver said ‘it was very good’. Changing back to the base setup they used in CP1 yesterday, and making some further changes including the use of a lightweight body, he said that his T4 2020 was much faster this morning and had more steering. Feeling the track was slightly faster, the sun not showing up so far, Bruno said he will discuss with his mechanic Francesco Martini to discuss what to change ahead of Q2.

Infinity driver Akio Sobue ended the run in 2nd declaring that the car is ‘now good, better than yesterday’. Using a prototype of the company’s new mid motor touring car, the Japanese driver felt that the conditions had changed and are now better today. Having tried some small changes for Q1, he will now make more set-up changes as he looks for more steering and better cornering speed.

3rd for Yokomo, Nicholas Lee had to jostle for track position at the start of the run having felt that the drivers were not spaced enough off the starting grid. Catching Dominic Quek and Gary Huang early on, this delayed him and later had to let Quek back passed on track which he felt disrupted his rhythm. On his car he commented that he was the only one of the front runners on really old tires, with some others using new and so he was pleased with his pace considering this. Looking for more steering he will make some changes to his BD9, and for Q2 he will bolt on a fresh set of Sweep handout tires.

Taking 4th in round 1 of qualifying Xray driver Dominic Quek felt that the traction was actually lower than yesterday and that his car only came good in the last 90 seconds. Saying he had to make way for Nico at the start, because of this he would take back track position near the end of the run from his fellow Singapore driver. Regarding his car he said that he had changed to a production ARS system, having used a pre production version previously, the better geometry making the car more stable. Feeling the car is ok, he will only make small changes for Q2.

In the Stock class it was Hong Kong driver Stick King who topped the opening qualifier, the Serpent driver heading a very closely matched top 3. In 2nd, just 0.7 behind was Dominic Quek for Xray with German driver Max Machler, driving his Awesomatix in 3rd a further 0.4 behind.

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