Semi Final line-up complete at Gröndal Ring

The Semi Final line-up is complete for the 37th running of the 1:8 Offroad European Championships at the Gröndal Ring in Sweden.  In the first of the 1/4 Finals it was French driver Rayan Medjoubi who took the win from pole sitter Hampus Berg.  The Kyosho driver won the 20-minute encounter easily, going an extra lap, to book his first ever Semi Final appearance.  The others to progress would be Jorge Soler and 2016 Finalists Bryan Baldo.  The TLR driver started his day in the 1/16 Final and just made it through to the 1/8.  Starting from the back, the Spaniard again claimed the last bump up spot to again carry the No.12 in the 1/4.  Battling with Jürgen Trieb, he would jump down the inside of the Sworkz driver as they started the last lap to progress once again.

In the second of the 1/4 Final encounters, 2015 podium finisher Alex Zanchettin started on pole and lead throughout.  The Tekno driver lead home Infinity driver Lee Martin, the newly crowned 1:10 2WD Offroad World Champion back in the Semi having missed the cut last year.  Having bumped up from the 1/16, Kyosho driver James La Pavoux continued his good run to finish 3rd and progress for a 3rd time.  Completing the Top 4 & becoming the final of the 24 drivers still in contention to become European Champion would be Marcel Paul, the German leading the most race mileage done award having qualified down in the 1/32nd final.

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Batlle Top Qualifier in Sweden

Robert Batlle is Top Qualifier at the 1:8 Offroad European Championships in Sweden, the Mugen driver producing a blistering final qualifier to leave his rivals stunned and deny World Champion David Ronnefalk a home TQ.  Having started out yesterday unable to match Ronnefalk and reigning champion Elliott Boots, the 2-time former champion found his rhythm on Day 2 of qualifying topping both qualifiers to claim only his second ever Euros TQ, the last one being 10 years ago when he took his first title.  With a TQ run in Q3, Ronnefalk would end up second to secure pole for the second of the Semi finals in which Boots, who took Q1, will start directly behind him.  Fastest in the second qualifier, Davide Ongaro ended up 3rd overall and the Italian star will follow Batlle off the line in the first of the 20-min Semi finals. Former Champion Darren Bloomfield joins them while Riccardo Berton will complete the Top 3 starting line-up for the Semi B encounter.

‘I think that was the best that was possible’, was a very pleased looking Batlle’s reaction to his Q5 run – the 8 laps in 5:18.801 the big talking point among drivers as they queued for lunch at the track afterwards.  He continued, ‘It felt super good, I had traction, I didn’t have too much side bite, I had everything.  We worked all week through our plan and now we are ready for tomorrow’.  Making his MBX6-R comfortable to drive in Q4 with a change to supersoft AKA Impact tyre, he would change to a soft for the final run describing them as ‘super nice’.  Asked about his preparations for the Semi Final, drivers getting a 10-minute practice session before hand to reacclimatise with the track after the running of the lower finals,  he said, ‘We will think about the tyres and test some things in the Semi practice but the car is super nice so I will keep it like this, if we do change anything it will not be big’.  Giving Picco its first modern day Euros TQ, when asked about fuel run time he said, ‘everything is as planned.  We had some issues at the start of the week but we fixed them’.  Interestingly it has been six years since the Top Qualifier didn’t go on to become the Champion and on that occasion it was Batlle who took the 2011 win, Jerome Aigoin having taken the TQ.

Seeing out qualifying with a P3 run, Ronnefalk said, ‘the run was good and consistent but I had traffic at the end  and changed my line coming onto the straight and caught the wall which sent the car fishtailing.  Anyway even without this it was no where near to Robert’.  Choosing JConcepts’ Metrix tyre, the HB Racing driver said it wasn’t the right tyre as he didn’t have enough traction and so he was missing some speed as a result. Asked about his Semi final, he replied, ‘We will make the car ready and use the Semi Warm-up to check what tyre works’.  On fuel the Orion team driver said, ‘fuel is comfortable, in practice it was good so we will see again in the warm-up’.  Asked if the track presented an opportunity to gain on fuel strategy he said, ‘I’m never going to take a risk again.  Too many time before it didn’t work.’

‘To get 3rd overall I’m really happy’, was Ongaro’s reaction at the end of qualifying.  The Team Associated driver continued, ‘I am happy with the car, we run it the same all day, and for tomorrow I will leave it the same’.  In terms of the tyres, the 16-year-old Italian talent said, ‘I will try in the practice the same tyre as Robert and also the Catapult’.  Chasing his third consecutive A-Main appearance since first making the A-Main at his family’s Ongaroring in 2015, he said his approach for the Semi was to drive ‘consistent and not crash’.

Looking to become only the second driver to ever do three in a row Euros title, Renaud Savoya doing it in 2010, Boots who was second fastest in Q5 said, ‘we finished on a high’.  The Kyosho driver continued, ‘we got the car better, not as good as Robert’s car, but it feels pretty good.  Unfortunately we ended up 4th overall on count back’ – himself and Ongaro finishing on the same points.  He added, ‘Robert is fast but whether he can go like that for a long time we’ll have to see, maybe he can.  In the last one I was driving a bit conservative and not really pushing the car so I’m actually pretty happy’.  Asked about going into the Semi final the British driver said, ‘ We will change a few things for the Warm-up to try them and I want to run the same set of tyres to see how long they last. So far the don’t look to have any wear on them’ – his MP9 running on Pro-Line’s Big Block in X3 compound.

Posting another P6 run in the final qualifier which would count along with his impressive Q4 P2 and third in Q2, 2015 Finalist Berton said, ‘I didn’t have bad pace but the corner before the straight I had a bad mistake and it was a 44-second lap’.  The 18-year-old Kyosho driver said having started the week good but struggled on Wednesday ‘now I’m happy again with the car, it is easy to drive and I can push it.  For the Semi we will just make everything fresh and also continue to run on Bowtie X2’.

‘I drove like a cock, I definitely had the car for it but blew myself out of the water’, was how Bloomfield summed up Q5.  The Agama driver added, ‘I ruined it for myself but the job was already done to get me into the Semis’.  Fourth at last year’s Euros in Spain, in terms of his car he said, ‘I’m going to stick with what I have and just learn to drive it.  I need to stiffen the shocks a touch for the practice and just drive a clean fun 10-minutes to check everything for the Semi.’ Asked if tyre wear or fuel would be an issue, the Brit replied, ‘nothing stands out.  We all thought wear was going to be an issue but it turned out not to be’.

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Batlle takes Q4, 4-way TQ battle to be decided in final qualifier

Robert Batlle has opened the final day of qualifying at the European Championship with a TQ run, the Mugen driver becoming the fourth different driver to top the times to set the stage for a four way shoot out for the overall TQ in Sweden in the fifth & final round of qualifying.  After overnight rain, it was Ronnefalk who looked on target to set down the early benchmark but a near perfect run from the Swede would come undone on his last lap as he suffered a broken screw in his steering, handing Juan Carlos Canas the provisional TQ time after the first heat. Riccardo Berton would better that time in Heat 2 but Batlle, even with a 44 second lap, would finally hit the top of the times for the first time at the Gröndal Ring.  Just 3/10ths behind the Spaniard, Berton would end up second with reigning champion Elliott Boots completing the Top 3 ahead of Canas, Darren Bloomfield and Martin Wollanka.

‘Super nice’ was Batlle’s reaction to his TQ run.  The two time former champion, the most recent of those titles coming in 2011 in Germany, continued, ‘Looking from the outside the track had less grip after the rain so I chose Impact Supersoft and the car was really good.  It was easier to drive than yesterday’.  What made the former World Champion even more happy was that his TQ time came even with him having a mistake.  He said, ‘I saw another car crash and tried to avoid it but ended up crashing myself at the double double and lost 4-seconds’.  Describing himself as ‘quite comfortable with the car’ he plans to ‘leave it like it is but maybe use a harder compound (tyre)’ but with some dark clouds hanging around he concluded, ‘we’ll see what happens with the weather’.

Berton was very happy with his fourth qualifier calling it ‘a very good run’.  Switching to Pro-Line’s X2 Bow-tie tyre, the Kyosho driver said they were ‘better on the bumps and the car is now more easy to drive.’  On the track conditions the 18-year-old said ‘some parts it’s loose but it is not much different to yesterday.’  Running a 43/13 drive ratio, he will go to a 47/13 for the final qualifier looking to get more low down power. With the former European B Champion safely locked into a good Semi starting position he plans to use Q5 to work on his lines for tomorrow.

‘Not too bad. I had a mistake and a couple of rough laps’, was how Boots summed up his latest qualifier.  The Kyosho driver added, ‘it’s a bit better now the track, it’s not so edgy but we still need to improve the car and I need to improve too’.  Getting some racing practice in when he caught João Figueiredo in the run, he said, ‘What was João doing.  It took him half a lap to let me by and then he was on my rear gearbox pushing me around the track.  I lost my rhythm a bit’.  On tyres Boots would switch to X3 Big Blocks saying they were ‘a bit easier to drive on’ and he will run them again in the last round.

Canas said after two bad runs yesterday, a Stop & Go penalty in Q2 and loss of electrics in Q3, and the overnight rain, he was a ‘little nervous’ for Q4.  The Spaniard left his Mugen unchanged only switching to a softer compound tyre describing it afterwards as a little more loose on throttle.  With two P4 runs but needing a third good result to get into the Semis, the 2016 Finalist said, ‘I need to get something good in the last one so I will drive safe’.

‘I just wanted to make the Semi, I wish I’d got that result last night’, was Bloomfield’s reaction to posting the fifth fastest time.  The Agama driver continued, ‘I was leading my heat last night for 5 laps and was on for a Top 3 run but at the step up it exploded.  I landed in the middle of the step-up and had to be marshalled but he had to wait for cars to go by so I lost something like 8-seconds. I’m glad I hit a run and that I don’t need to do it in the last one’. For Q5, the former Champion will take off some anti-squat as well as switch from Beta’s Freeride tyre to the V-Max.

Completing the Top 6, Xray’s Martin Wollanka said, ‘that was the best the car has been, it was really really good’.  The Austrian had some bad luck on his last lap when he collected another car that was on its roof, the incident costing him around 2-seconds. Finding that the car, ‘sometimes slides on the rear’, the former Euros podium finisher will test a different anti rollbar in his final heat.

‘Better today than tomorrow’, was how Ronnefalk summed up his problem in Q4.  With the screw in the steering knuckle breaking, the World Champion continued, ‘the screw just broke, if it had been loose I would have felt it the lap before’.  Describing his heat as having been going ‘super good’, he concluded, ‘Anyway the TQ is still possible and 4 guys can take it so let’s see’.

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