Ronnefalk takes Q3, Bloomfield is overnight TQ

Kyosho’s David Ronnefalk ended the first day of qualifying at the 1:8 Offroad European Championships with a TQ run in the third round but it is Team Losi Racing’s Darren Bloomfield who is the provisional overnight Top Qualifier in Fehring, Austria.

A slower track for Q3 after a short rain shower that arrived at the end of Q2 but stopped again shortly into the start of Q3, reigning European Junior Champion Ronnefalk was happy to return to the top of the time sheets having set the pace on the opening day of practice for the event on Tuesday.  Having come to the event with the set-up he used at the Warm-up race, the 16-year-old said he hasn’t had to make any changes to his Orion powered MP9 as ‘everything is working well’.  The 16-year-old said with a TQ run under his belt he is confident he can challenge for the overall TQ honours tomorrow.  While very happy with his set-up Ronnefalk said he might make a small change as once or twice he could have done with a little more steering at the 180 degree corners.

Setting the fastest lap of Q3 to claim second overall backing up his Q1 TQ run, Bloomfield was very happy with his performance today on a track which the former British Champion described as the ‘best European track’ he has been to in a long time.  After struggling with new tyres in Q2 when he could only manage 10th, he ran a used set of AKA Enduros on his modified 8ight.  Asked if having US star Adam Drake as his mechanic was a contributing factor to his performance Bloomfield said having someone you can trust working on your car is great and it also gave him more time to talk to other Losi drivers and gather useful information. With very little turn around time between his Q2 & Q3 run he said it was great not have to rush to get the buggy prepped leaving him time to go up to the drivers stand a lot more relaxed than usual.

The fastest man in Q2, Elliot Boots said he just made too many mistakes in Q3 leaving him to take only the fifth fastest time for the round. Sitting third in the overnight ranking the newly crowned British Champion said his Novarossi powered Kyosho is up for the job and with better driving tomorrow everything will be fine.

Defending Champion Robert Batlle took his Mugen to fourth in Q3 and that is the position the Spaniard holds in the current qualification standings.  Finishing ahead of the double champion was his great rival and 3-time champion Renaud Savoya.  The Xray driver said the event is going as expected and his RB powered XB9 is really ‘enjoyable’ to drive. Removing some screws from his buggy for Q3 to give it flex he said the change was good and while the track was slower he was able to post his fastest 5-minute time.  Still following the program they came with he said while little mistakes cost him in terms of his placing for the opening two rounds he said everything is going as expected.

Tomorrow drivers have two final rounds of qualifying in which to secure themselves a place in the all important Semi finals, these spot going to the Top 16 in the final qualification ranking.  One notable driver who will need two good qualifiers tomorrow is last year’s podium finisher Daniel Reckward.  The former World Champion who has won the Euros 3-times previously had a tough day and languishes down in 45th position.  Red RC, whose coverage is being supported by Serpent, Team C and defending champions Mugen, will have full updates after each of those crucial qualifiers.

Qualifying Times Round 3
1. David Ronnefalk (SE) – Kyosho/Orion – 9/5:30.054
2. Darren Bloomfield (GB) – TLR/Novarossi – 9/5:30.595
3. Renaud Savoya (FR) – Xray/RB – 9/5:31.849
4. Robert Batlle (ES) – Mugen/Novarossi – 9/5:30.779
5. Elliot Boots    (GB) – Kyosho/Novarossi – 9/5:33.337
6. Borja Hernandez (ES) – LRP/Alpha – 9/5:34.361
7. Miguel Matias (PT) – TLR/RB – 9/5:35.001
8. Neil Cragg (GB) – Associated/LRP – 9/5:35.099
9. Jérôme Sartel (FR) – Agama/Bullit – 9/5:35.248
10.Yannick Aigoin (FR) – Associated/Novarossi – 9/5:36.576
11.Peter Pinisch (AT) – LRP/LRP – 9/5:38.557
12.Rayan Medjoubi (FR) – JQ/JQ – 8/5:00.621

Qualification Ranking after Round 3 of 5
1. Darren Bloomfield (GB) – TLR/Novarossi – 368 pts
2. David Ronnefalk (SE) – Kyosho/Orion – 367
3. Elliot Boots    (GB) – Kyosho/Novarossi – 365
4. Robert Batlle (ES) – Mugen/Novarossi – 363
5. Miguel Matias (PT) – TLR/RB – 363
6. Jörn Neumann    (DE) – Durango/Picco – 362
7. Renaud Savoya (FR) – Xray/RB – 360
8. Joseph Quagraine (FI) – JQ/JQ – 356
9. Borja Hernandez (ES) – LRP/Alpha – 355
10.Christoffer Svensson (SE) – Kyosho/OS – 353
11.Teemu Leino (FI) – HB/LRP – 348
12.Jérôme Aigoin (FR) – Kyosho/Novarossi – 346

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Boots fastest in Q2

Having thrown away any chance of a TQ at the first corner in the opening round of qualifying Team Kyosho’s Elliot Boots bounced back in style in Q2 to set a new fastest time by 2 seconds over Durango’s Joern Neumann with Kyosho’s other hot shot teenager David Ronnefalk, who also messed up his Q1 run, setting the third fastest time a further 8/10ths adrift. Just as the second round of qualifying came to an end it started to rain at the Fehring track but it would appear that it was just a passing shower although the skies remain very overcast.

Boots was pleased with his Q2 run but the 19-year-old felt he could have layed down an even faster time had he not been held up for two laps by slower traffic.  During the warm-up the 19-year-old made a number of mistakes but once the 5-minute qualifier started proper the British Champion & 2011 Finalists drove a clean round.  Afterwards Boots said that having fitted a brand new set of super soft AKA Enduros for the second heat he had to run a few aggressive laps to scrub the edges of the tyres and this is why this is why his buggy looked terrible but once the heat started the buggy felt really good.  Hoping it is dry for the third of the five scheduled qualifiers, which will bring Day 3 of the 32nd running of the European Championships to a close, Boots said he would leave everything the same but being from the United Kingdom, he was confident he would have a good set-up should conditions be wet.

Having discovered a problem with his throttle pot on his radio transmitter that was creating its own exponential, Neumann ran the second heat with a Sanwa M11 borrowed from top Austrian racer Peter Pinisch.  Neumann’s own radio is 2-years old but as his mechanic this weekend Hupo Honigl pointed out the German has one of the busiest off road racing programmes of any driver and so the dust & dirt is going to take its toll on the radio. Neumann said he has Sanwa’s new M12 radio but didn’t bring it as he said he hasn’t yet had time to practice with the new unit.  In terms of the buggy the back to back 4WD Electric European Champion said a switch to JConcept Barcodes in soft ‘blue’ compound was the perfect choice for the conditions at the time of his run.  He said as the heat progressed the tyres got better and better each lap and he only wished the heat had been longer.

Having had great pace since the start of the event on Tuesday, Ronnefalk finally managed a clean run but like Boots he too had issues with traffic.  The 16-year-old lost some time with the traffic but said he didn’t want to take any unnecessary risks of getting caught up in the slower cars.  Running the same set of AKA Enduro tyres from Q1 the Swede said this was probably not the best call as they started losing grip in the final minute or so of the run.

Defending Champion Robert Batlle was fourth fastest. With the top drivers spread over five heats rather than the top 12 from controlled practice being in the top heat, the Spaniard was also delayed by traffic including a coming together with fellow Mugen team driver Daniel Reckward. In the end a mistake on the last corner of the last lap cost him about a second and a chance of a potential second fastest time for the round.  In the last heat for Q2 Batlle said at the end of the run he started to lose steering and he wasn’t sure if that was due to the arrival of the rain or something to do with his MBX6R.

Having taken a 1-2 in the opening qualifier Team Losi Racing could only manage 5th fastest with Miguel Matias.  The Portuguese driver said his RB powered 8ight was very consistent but running wide on one of the fast corners, something he described as a big mistake at this level of racing, cost him a few 10ths and overall points for the round.  Team-mate Darren Bloomfield who TQ’d round 1 could only managed the 10th fastest time. The British driver said they made the wrong call to run brand new tyres for Q2, having used scrubbed tyres earlier, as they made his Novarossi powered 8ight very edgy to drive and that led to a crash.

Completing the Top 6 was Joseph Quagraine. The Finn said after the run former World Champion Mark Pavidis, whose AKA brand sponsor his tyres, asked him ‘what was wrong’ as that was the first time in about four years he had seen the JQ Products founder drive with such aggression. Quagraine, who runs City Block on the front and iBeam on the rear of ‘The Car’ was himself delighted with his driving which he described as a ‘good clean round’.

Qualifying Times Round 2
1. Elliot Boots (GB) – Kyosho/Novarossi – 9/5:27.667
2. Jörn Neumann (DE) – Durango/Picco – 9/5:29.714
3. David Ronnefalk (SE) – Kyosho/Orion – 9/5:30.557
4. Robert Batlle (ES) – Mugen/Novarossi – 9/5:30.779
5. Miguel Matias (PT) – TLR/RB – 9/5:31.357
6. Joseph Quagraine (FI) – JQ/JQ – 9/5:32.558
7. Renaud Savoya (FR) – Xray/RB – 9/5:32.965
8. Teemu Leino (FI) – HB/LRP – 9/5:33.196
9. Borja Hernandez (ES) – LRP/Alpha – 9/5:34.479
10.Darren Bloomfield (GB) – TLR/Novarossi – 9 5:35.409
11.Martin Bayer (CZ) – Xray/nVision – 9/5:35.805
12.Lee Martin (GB) – Mugen/OS – 8/5:00.160

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Euro Qualifying starts with TLR 1-2

Team Losi Racing, who despite being one of the main players in the 1:8 Offroad market have never before won the European Championship, got their 2012 campaign off to a strong start this morning in Austria as their drivers Darren Bloomfield and Miguel Matias topped the time sheets for the opening round of qualifying ahead of Mugen’s defending Champion Robert Batlle.

Bloomfield said after his TQ run that ‘it didn’t feel like a 9-lap run’ but he managed to ‘drive an error free 5-minutes’.  Running a scrubbed set of super soft AKA Enduros on his 8ight, which features a number of new parts the team have brought over from the US to test, the British ace said the buggy felt very good.  Having changed to a different Novarossi engine for qualifying, Bloomfield was happier with the tuning having struggled to get a good balance between the top & bottom end on the engine he ran in yesterday’s two timed practice rounds.

Former Champion Matias said his updated 8ight was awesome although he is still looking for a little more steering.  Unlike the majority of drivers running AKA who choose Enduro for Q1, the Portuguese ace ran super soft compound Impact tyres something he said was just down to a personal preference.  Planning to stick with the same set-up and tyres for Q2, for which he has an almost 6 hour wait before his heat is up, Matias said he will modify his rear wing so as to reduce drag and also help with getting better rotation in the corners.

Batlle, who essentially ran two qualifiers this morning following a problem with the timing computer, said his Mugen lacked steering but he was still able to run consistent laps and he was happy enough to set a 9-lap run.  Running soft compound Pro Circuit Square Impact the 2-time Champion said the extra running meant his tyres started to fade at the end of the run.  The problem with the timing occurred as officials input the disqualification of Associated Neil Cragg, whose fuel tank failed for being deem over size, in to the timing causing the automated voice to make random announcements such as 30 seconds to start when the race was already 2-minutes underway.  Restarting the run the problem went away and race director Carlos Gomez is confident the issue is now rectified.

Also running in the restarted heat Kyosho team driver Christoffer Svensson took his OS powered MP9 to the fourth fastest time ahead of team-mate & yesterday’s controlled practice pace setter Jerome Aigoin.  The Swede described the run as ‘just alright’ as while he made no mistakes he did not always hit his lines. Running AKA Enduro tyres he said the plan for Q2 is to just focus on improving his driving.  Fellow Swede and Kyosho team-mate David Ronnefalk set the fastest lap of Q1 with a 36.571 and was on target for a TQ run when he ran wide and out into to the dust causing his to lose traction for the table top off which he crashed his Orion powered MP9 and lost a massive 9 seconds to end up 11th.

Running a new AKA ‘similar to Grid Iron’ tyre in his first qualifier Jerome Aigoin summed up his run as ‘Not so bad, not so fast’.  With one mistake that lost him almost 3 seconds, last year’s Top Qualifier and pole sitter said he will most likely switch to Enduro tyres for Q2 but for now everything else he will leave the same.

Team Durango’s Jörn Neumann, who won the 4WD electric European Championship at this track last month, was pleased with his opening qualifier as he posted the 6th fastest time.  Using a bigger pin tyre having switched from JConcepts Stackers to a Crossbows he said he had better overall grip and steering particularly on the concrete block section of the track.   Running a prototype car most of which has been hand machined by Durango designer Gerd Strenge the German ace said the new buggy is a huge improvement over last year’s.  While he made the final 12-months ago Neumann said this year the buggy, which follows a more traditional chassis design, is a far more competitive package.

The Top seed for qualifying Elliot Boots saw any chance of a TQ run end at the very start of the run when he got the first corner wrong and launched his Kyosho off the track.  Loosing 4 seconds he said the rest of the run was good and the car had the pace to TQ but the lost time meant he got 7th for the round ahead of ‘The Car’ of Joseph Quagraine and the LRP of Borja Hernandez.

Completing the Top 10 was 3-time Champion Renaud Savoya.  The Xray driver said he went into the opening heat looking to put in a clean run but drove a little too cautiously in particular his opening lap which was 38.658 seconds.  Running Sweep Double Action tyres, the French ace said his RB powered XB9 felt good and he just needs to push harder next time out.

Qualifying Times Round 1
1. Darren Bloomfield (GB) – TLR/Novarossi – 9/5:35.967
2. Miguel Matias (PT) – TLR/RB – 9/5:36.453
3. Robert Batlle (ES) – Mugen/Novarossi – 9/5:38.132
4. Christoffer Svensson (SE) – Kyosho/OS – 8/5:00.352
5. Jérôme Aigoin (FR) – Kyosho/Mugen – 8/5:01.445
6. Jörn Neumann    (DE) – Durango/Picco – 8/5:02.031
7. Elliot Boots    (GB) – Kyosho/Novarossi – 8/5:02.199
8. Joseph Quagraine (FI) – JQ/JQ – 8/5:02.483
9. Borja Hernandez (ES) – LRP/Alpha – 8/5:02.892
10.Renaud Savoya (FR) – Xray/RB – 8/5:02.966
11.David Ronnefalk (SE) – Kyosho/Orion – 8/5:03.636
12.Davide Tortorici (IT) – Mugen/Bliss – 8/5:04.558

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Aigoin tops final Euros practice

Practice for the 32nd running of the 1:8 Offroad European Championships has concluded with Jerome Aigoin topping the final controlled practice at the Fehring track in Austria.  Last year’s Top Qualifier took his Novarossi powered MP9 to the only 9 lap run of the day making it a very strong start to the championship for Kyosho who topped yesterday’s free practice with David Ronnefalk and this morning’s damp practice round with Elliot Boots, who on combined points from today’s two controlled practices is top seed for tomorrow’s qualifying.

Having only ran the 9th fastest time in the morning, Aigoin said the only change he made for the final practice was to switch to soft compound AKA Enduro tyres and he was very happy with the choice as they worked very well on the now ‘cleaner’ track.  With his buggy feeling easy to drive since the start of practice yesterday the newly crowned French champion said he plans to continue to leave his set-up as is adding that making the right tyre call was going to be the most important thing for tomorrow.  With the changing conditions most talk in the pits focuses around tyres which is keeping AKA boss & former World Champion Mark Pavidis busy in the pits as he tries to assist his drivers with making the right call.  In the reseed the top 4 positions went to AKA drivers.

Behind Aigoin former champion Miguel Matias set the second fastest time of Q2.  The Portuguese ace, whose RB powered 8ight features new geometry, said the new parts have made the buggy very easy to drive everywhere around the track.  Looking for a little more steering he will change from a 2.0 to a 2.3 sway bar for qualifying which he said will solve that.  Running super soft AKA Grid Iron he said they worked well for the conditions but added he is still looking for the right tyre for qualifying.

Boots, who lost around 2 seconds when fellow Kyosho driver Christoffer Svensson landed on his MP9 off one of the jumps, was overall pleased with his pace in practice and as the top seed for qualifying is looking forward to tomorrow.  Using the second practice to try different diff oils he said the track was quite slippy as the surface had become polished but he is confident that he has a good package and set-up going into the opening qualifier.  As part of the reseed drivers will this evening get a quick three minute run in their new heat order and the 2012 British Champion plans to use this to try out a potential tyre option for Q1.

Kyosho team-mate Ronnefalk, who was only 31st fastest after a series of driver errors including missing the three finger section twice, said the pace is there but he just made stupid mistakes.  Describing the track as looking the same as yesterday when he topped the time sheets he said it was ‘so different’ being very loose this time round.  Despite failing to post a Top 10 time over the 5-minute runs the 16-year-old said with some better driving everything should be ok for qualifying.

With Adam Drake as his mechanic for this event Darren Bloomfield set the fourth fastest time of CP2.  The former British Champion said he changed his 8ight last night to a stiffer front rollbar he said the change wasn’t good for CP1 but sticking with it for the second run he said it felt ‘brilliant’.  The factory Novarossi driver is still working on finding a good balance with his engine tuning.  A track with a lot of high speed sections he said he was trying to find a good balance between top and bottom end power while also ensuring he can get good fuel mileage thinking ahead to the finals.

Top Xray in the final practice was former podium finisher & reigning Czech National Champion Martin Bayer.  The best place Losi at last year’s championships in Germany where he finished 5th, the 2012 Team Xray signing said changes to his nVision engine for CP2 were ‘very good’.  Having only had to make very small set-up changes to his XB9 each run he said the buggy is very stable to drive and it was now just up to him to pick the right tyre for qualifying and put together a clean 10-minutes of driving.

Completing the Top 6 was former back to back Champion Davide Tortorici.  Winning his last title in 2005, the Mugen driver has been enjoying somewhat of a return to form and is currently on target to claim this year’s Italian National Championship title.  Just behind him in CP2 was 2006 Champion Yannick Aigoin who was top Associated for the round. Associated team-mate Neil Cragg, who was fourth fastest in CP1, was only 17th fastest after a wrong tyre choice of compound going for MX Proline Blockades but the former Electric Offroad World Champion said with the right tyres his LRP powered RC8.2 should be OK.

Also suffering from wrong tyre choice, going for too soft a Pro Circuit rubber, was defending champion Robert Battle who was 11th fastest.  The Spaniard, who is chasing a third European title here in Austria, said he is confident he will have the right tyre on for his opening qualifier.

Batlle’s great rival Renaud Savoya used the last practice to test tyres.  A 10-minute session, the last 5 of which were timed, the man who held the European title for 3 consecutive years tried two tyre patterns with the finals in mind. Starting with Sweep’s Square Armor he switched to Exagon which he said he found to be a little faster.  Suffering with his Xray diving a lot due to the shocks being too soft for the hotter conditions of CP2 Savoya set the ninth fastest time but said ‘all was OK and they where continuing to ‘follow the plan’.  Planning to run ‘Double Action’ tyres in qualifying he will decide on the compound in the morning.

Controlled Practice Run 2
1. Jérôme Aigoin (FR) – 9/5:37.48
2. Miguel Matias (PT) – 8/5:02.285
3. Elliot Boots (GB) – 8/5:02.840
4. Darren Bloomfield (GB) – 8/5:03.827
5. Martin Bayer (CZ) – 8/5:04.638
6. Davide Tortorici (IT) – 8/5:05.228
7. Yannick Aigoin (FR) – 8/5:05.759
8. Joern Neumann (D) – 8/5:05.888
9. Renaud Savoya (FR) – 8/5:05.929
10.Joseph Quagraine (FI) – 8/5:05.974
11.Robert Batlle (ES) – 8/5:06.222
12.Borja Hernandez (ES) – 8/5:07.171

Final Practice Ranking
1. Elliot Boots (GB) – Kyosho/Novarossi – 185 pts
2. Jérôme Aigoin (FR) – Kyosho/Novarossi – 185
3. Renaud Savoya (FR) – Xray/RB – 183
4. Miguel Matias (PT) – TLR/RB – 183
5. Robert Batlle (ES) – Mugen/Novarossi – 182
6. Darren Bloomfield (GB) – TLR/Novarossi – 181
7. Neil Cragg (GB) – Associated/LRP – 181
8. Martin Bayer    (CZ) – Xray/nVision – 180
9. Joseph Quagraine (FI) – JQ/JQ – 180
10.Daniel Reckward (DE) – Mugen/RB – 179
11.Davide Tortorici (IT) – Mugen/Bliss – 179
12.Jérôme Sartel (FR) – Agama/Bullit – 178

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Boots tops first controlled practice

Britian’s Elliot Boots topped the opening controlled practice this morning on Day 2 of the 1:8 Offroad European Championships in Frehing, Austria, where drivers were greeted with a very different conditions to yesterday’s dusty track following some overnight rain.  Getting 10 minutes of track time, the second half of the run was timed for the purpose of being used to reseed drivers for tomorrow’s qualifying heats with Boot’s Novarossi powered Kyosho managing 8-laps in 5:00.504 which was 1 second faster than Renaud Savoya who in turn was 3/10th of a second faster than defending Champion Robert Batlle.

Having run a set-up yesterday which he uses regularly back in the UK, where he has dominated this year’s National Championship, Boots switched to his Warm-up Race set-up for today’s first run having seen Kyosho team-mate David Ronnefalk use it to good effect yesterday when he topped the opening days action.  A damp track, Boots said it felt quicker to drive as the buggy wasn’t sliding around as much as in the dust yesterday but in terms of lap times it was slower, something he put down to the concrete section of the track where he said it was ‘very slippery’.  Running AKA soft compound Grid Iron the 19-year-old said he will keep an eye on the conditions before choosing what tyre to run in this evening’s second practice as while the skies are overcast the warm temperatures are sure to make for much drier conditions.  In terms of set-up changes the former European Junior Champion, who is clearly benefiting from the guidance of Mick Craddock who turned down a chance to race here in Austria to concentrate on his young protege, said he may depending on the conditions change diff oil.

Having changed to a thicker front diff oil last night following his second free practice run Savoya said it was slightly too heavy for this morning’s conditions.  The 3-time former Champion said his choice of Sweep tyre was also not perfect with his RB powered Xray lacking a little in terms of side grip.  With the track about 1 second a lap faster the French ace said he only lost .8 per lap in pace and so overall he is pleased with the run.   Other than fine tuning his choice of diff oil he feels the set-up on his XB9 is good for qualifying and so for the second practice today he will work on finding a tyre suitable for the finals.  Planning to run the Exagon pattern he said its important to see if his set-up needs to be adjusted to suit the tyre.

Mugen’s Batlle, who was analyzing video footage of his first controlled practice, said he maybe went for too soft a tyre choosing Pro-Circuit’s extreme compound Square Impact for the ‘slippy’ conditions.  Planning to add more front caster to his MBX6R along with changing to a softer rear spring, the Spaniard said the run was OK.  Having complained that his Novarossi engine was down on power yesterday he said they had sorted that problem and the engine power was now ‘awesome’.

Setting the fourth fastest time factory Team Associated driver Neil Cragg described his run on the ‘completely different’ track as steady.  Using Proline M3 Holeshots on his RC8.2 he said the buggy still felt pretty good despite only changing tyres for the different conditions.  Planning to revert to Proline Blockades for his second run he said he will make a call on which compound to run near the time, depending on how much the track has dried.

Driving ‘The Car’, JQ Products boss Joseph Quagraine was the surprise of the morning as he set the fifth fastest time.  The Finnish driver said he was very comfortable driving the buggy mainly due to having had the opportunity to do 5 gallons of testing over a 10 day period just prior to the Euros.  Having launched his own buggy just one and a half years ago Quagraine said the first year was taken up sorting out problems that come with creating an all new product and its only in the last six months that he has been able to work on developing the buggy and as a result it has been improving with every outing this year.

Behind Quagraine last year’s podium finisher Daniel Reckward completed the Top 6 with his Mugen ahead of the Agama of France’s Jerome Sartel, Xrays’s Martin Bayer and 2011 Top Qualifier Jerome Aigoin. Yesterday’s pace setter David Ronnefalk was on target for a good run until his Kyosho got tangled up with a slower buggy and ended up on it roof costing the Swedish teenager almost 7 seconds and a Top 3 time.  Ending up 14th fastest, the reigning Junior Champion said his Orion powered MP9 was very consistent but lacking a little in steering.  Choosing soft AKA Grid Iron tyres he said they gave good forward traction but he had to drive on the throttle to get around the corners.  Expecting conditions to be dry for his next outing he will switch back to Impact tyres.

A former podium finisher at the European Championship, Spanish driver Borja Hernadez, who along with Top Austrian offroad racer Peter Pinisch is driving LRP’s S8-BXR Evo Buggy, had a good run which would have put him sixth fastest but in post race technical inspection the buggy was found to be two wide and his time was disallowed.  Elsewhere factory HB driver Teemu Leino did a good job to post the 12th fastest time as he is suffering from food poisoning.  The Finn has been excused from marshalling with his mechanic Masayuki Miura standing in for him.

Controlled Practice Run 1
1. Elliot Boots (GB) – 8/5:00.504
2. Renaud Savoya (FR) – 8/5:01.508
3. Robert Batlle (ES) –  8/5:01.849
4. Neil Cragg (GB) – 8/5:04.790
5. Joseph Quagraine (FI) – 8/5:05.015
6. Daniel Reckward (DE) – 8/5:06.707
7. Jérôme Sartel (FR) – 8/5:06.768
8. Martin Bayer (CZ) – 8/5:07.092
9. Jérôme Aigoin (FR) – 8/5:07.271
10.Christoffer Svensson (SE) – 8/5:07.563
11.Daniel Vega (ES) – 8/5:07.714
12.Teemu Leino (FI) – 8/5:07.945

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