Wilck top seed at Beijing Worlds

Viktor Wilck is the top seed for qualifying at the Electric Touring Car World Championships in Beijing, the Serpent driver having topped a much faster second round of controlled practice.  With wind causing many drivers problems in the first round, the sun came out for driver’s second attempt at a 3-consecutive lap time and with the wind dying off the track would prove over a second faster.  Having set the pace so far at these unique Worlds, in that no one drove the newly surfaced track prior to the first round of free practice yesterday morning, Bruno Coelho would finish second fastest 0.125 off of Wilck’s pace, their fastest lap times almost identical with only 2/1000ths of a difference between them.  Ronald Volker would complete the Top 3, the Yokomo driver a further 3/10th back.  For World Champion Naoto Matsukura a though first day didn’t get any better with his title defence starting in the 5th fastest qualifying group.  It wasn’t a good controlled practice for his Tamiya team-mate Marc Rheinard either, the 3-time Champion only able for the 13th fastest time.

Having planned to make changes to his 4X after posting the 5th fastest time in CP1,  Wilck said, ‘actually we didn’t change so much just the toe in and a new set of tyres’.  The Swede continued, ‘this conditions are good for my car but if it improves more it could be worse for us’.  In terms of his car he said, ‘right now I plan to keep it like this’.  Asked about his 5-minute pace, he replied, ‘Bruno is a little faster over 5-minutes.  I had two mistakes and following him I could almost keep up (with Coelho) but he is a little faster’.

‘It was good but I made a mistake in the first three laps’, was Coelho’s reaction to not finding himself at the top of the time sheets for the first time.  The Xray driver said , ‘I was over pushing and made a mistake on my 2nd lap and the best from the tyres was gone’.  Having topped the difficult CP1 track conditions he said second time round was ‘better but not perfect’.  Asked about his 5-minute pace, 3-laps having no relevance once qualifying starts, the 2014 Vice Champion said his pace was ‘super fast’ describing his Hobbywing powered T4 2017 as ‘stable and (having) good performance’ concluding ‘everything is OK’.

Summing up his P3 time, Volker said, ‘we didn’t have the right set-up for the conditions because when we discussed set-up changes for CP2 the sun was not out’.  He continued, ‘I didn’t expect we would go that much faster so considering this to get Top 3 is good’.  Looking to qualifying, drivers still having one more controlled practice in their new seeding order, he said ‘I was able to match Viktor’s pace but over the whole run Bruno is faster’.  Expecting similar conditions for CP3, he said they will have a better set-up on the car this time round.

Posting the fourth fastest time, Alexander Hagberg described his CP2 performance as ‘alright’.  The Xray driver continued ‘the track is changing so much. I think it is unfair to make only 2-runs but in the end it as ok for me’.  The Swedish driver said having changed the set-up on his OCRA powered example of the T4 for lower traction the car ended up ‘too stable’ but he said they should be ‘definitely alright’ for qualifying.

Behind Hagberg, Atsushi Hara would make a huge improvement on his CP1 standings when he was 23rd.   Just a tenth off Hagberg, Touring Car’s inaugural World Champion said, ‘track conditions are for sure way better and the warmer temperature was better for the tyres’.  Having run 2 Kyoshos each round of free practice, one with ARS and one without, and preferring the one without he put the ARS on his race car for CP2 and said it was now good for the conditions.  Having run his own ‘old bottle’ of the controlled additive, he said having to use ‘fresh’ bottles in the tyre area he said they are different and now the car is ‘much better to turn in’.  With his TF-7 ‘getting loose at the end’, the iconic driver said, ‘the balance is not 100% so I need to adjust set-up for next round’.

Elliott Harper would complete the Top 6 in seeding with Nicholas Lee, Andy Moore, Naoki Akiyama and Christopher Krapp completing the line-up for the top qualifying heat.  The Schumacher driver said he had his LRP Mi6 good yesterday but ‘didn’t drive well’.  Putting back on that set-up for CP2, he said both the car and the driver ‘drove better’.  He added, ‘I think it should be good too on 5-minutes but its hard to say what everyone’s drop off is until Q1’.  The 2-time Worlds finalist believes for qualifying ‘the key is to get the tyre to work from the first lap and not be sliding around’.  Under the newly introduced tyre rules, drivers will have to run used tyres in Q1 before getting new tyres for Q2.  Looking to get a bit more steering he said ‘as CP3 doesn’t count for anything I might try something’.  CP3 will not alter the heat order but will determine the starting order so the driver with the fastest three laps will get to start Q1 first.

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Coelho masters difficult conditions in 1st control practice

Bruno Coelho mastered difficult track conditions on Day 2 of the Electric Touring Car World Championships in Beijing this morning to top the first round of controlled practice.  Having topped yesterday’s six rounds of free practice, the Xray driver again was fastest but with wind effecting track conditions it was not a repeat of the 1-2 the Slovakian manufacturer witnessed on the opening Day.  With Hagberg managing only P10, pulling up with a minute to go as he clearly struggled with his car, there was a marked improvement from reigning manufacturer champions Yokomo.  Only p5 in free practice, Ronald Volker would set the second fastest time, albeit 7/10ths off Coelho over the best 3-consecutive laps, with team-mate Loic Jasmin completing the Top 3.

Almost 2 and half seconds slower than his free practice time Coelho said, ‘the track is super slow for everybody today’.  Making ‘little changes’ to the set-up on his T4 in anticipation of the low traction he said ‘my car worked very well for the conditions’. While the re application of sugar water this morning with no sun to properly dry it out will have had some effect on the conditions, with a wind warning in place for Beijing today it is this which most drivers feel is the biggest reason for the low traction.  Giving his reason for the slower track Coelho said, ‘the wind is bringing dust on to the track and that with it so loose the wind is effecting the car’.  He continued, ‘it makes the car very unpredictable’ and looking up to the cloud covered sky he added, ‘I think it will get worse’.

‘A better start to the day for me’ was Volker’s reaction after the first of the 3 controlled practices, the first two determining the seeding of the qualifying heats.  He continued, ‘the track is completely different to yesterday because of the wind but we definitely took the right direction when we combined the best set-ups from the two car yesterday onto one today’.  In addition to the wind, the German also feels the much lower temperatures are effecting the traction too.  Asked about changes to his soon to be released LRP powered BD8 for his next run, he replied ‘the car actually felt quite good but I need to check over the lap times for the whole run to compare the drop off to the others and then discuss with the team’.

Running in heat 13 of 15, French National Champion Jasmin said, ‘it was a good run’.  Having struggled with a lack of steering yesterday he said, ‘I found more steering and this is the point everyone is lacking and to get more steering than yesterday when the track is as it is is very positive’.  Feeling his BD8 is ‘still a little loose’ he added this was probably a combination of running new tyres and the fact there is ‘for sure less traction’ today.  The ETS A-Main regular plans to make changes to his set-up for CP2 to try an improve the traction.

Having been concerned yesterday about how his car would be over 5-minutes, running two cars meaning he never ran more than 2 & a half minutes, Christopher Krapp said ‘now I’m happy about my 5-minute pace’.  Posting the 4th fastest 3-consecutive lap time, the Tamiya driver however was less impressed with himself saying, ‘I’m not happy with my driving. I made too many mistakes here and there’.   With his super star team-mates Marc Rheinard and reigning World Champion Naoto Matsukura 21st and 24th respectively, Krapp said, ‘For me there is not a huge change (in lap time) maybe 1-second but for others there is 2-seconds of a difference. Luckily I’m OK’.  Planning ‘a small diff change’ on his Orion powered 419X, he said he would also ‘try to drive more clean’.  Having finished P4 in free practice yesterday right behind Krapp, Rheinard said, ‘I have no idea what is happening.  The track is really shit conditions with the wind’.  He continued, ‘I don’t know how I can be almost 3-seconds a lap slower today. The car is doing funny stuff and just spins out’.

‘Better again today’, was Viktor Wilck’s reaction to posting the 5th fastest time.  Serpent’s lead factory driver, he said, ‘when the grip is low, like yesterday morning, the car is OK, when the grip comes up I’m struggling’.  The Swede added, ‘for sure the conditions now are better for our car’.  Looking to CP2, he plans to make ‘small set-up changes’ to his Speedpassion powered 4X with running in his second set of tyres also a priority.  New for this year’s Worlds is the use of new and used tyre for qualifying.  With each round declared as a new or used tyre run, drivers must run new tyres in controlled practice to have used tyres for qualifying and one of the runs is that a driver must complete a minimum 10-laps on the tyres for them to be valid used tyres.

Completing the Top 6 ahead of Australia’s Simon Nicholson, Andy Moore said, ‘it was ok but the track changed like a huge amount’.  The Team Infinity driver added, ‘I’m not sure if its the wind or that they sprayed the track again but it’s a bit of disaster really’.  Feeling he had better conditions than the top heat and describing his Xray as felling ok the 2006 World Champion concluded, ‘I made the most of what I had’.  Behind Moore, Yokomo’s Nicolas Lee and Infinity team-mate Jilles Groskamp filled out the Top 10 ahead of Hagberg.

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Day 1 complete in Beijing, Xray in control

Day 1 of the Electric Touring Car World Championships is complete in Beijing with Xray having controlled proceedings.  Opening the day at the Fengtai R/C Model Area asphalt track at the top of the time sheets, after 6 rounds of free practice it was still an Xray 1,2 with Bruno Coelho fastest from Alexander Hagberg.  While the pair would fail to improve on their 3-fastest lap time from FP4, Coelho would still top the times sheets for the final practice ahead of Tamiya’s Chrishopher Krapp. Krapp’s FP6 time would see him the best of the rest as he turned around his performance over the day to finish P3 ahead of TRF team-mate Marc Rheinard although the gap was substantial at over half a second.  Unfortunately for defending champion Naoto Matsukura he couldn’t replicate the turn around of his team-mates ending up on page 2 of the time sheets with the 39th fastest time.  The Japanese driver said despite making changes to his set-up each run his car ‘still feels the same’.

‘It was a good day today’, was how Coelho summed up Day 1 of what is only his second touring car World Championship.  Finishing runner-up on his first attempt in Florida two years ago, the Portuguese driver added, ‘almost all runs we were on top showing we are strong in all conditions’.  Describing his Hobbywing powered T4 2017 as ‘good’ he said ‘there is still room to improve’ and they are ‘still working on it’.  Running two cars over the 5-minute practice, when asked about 5-minute pace he replied, ‘I think it should be fine.  I did 7 laps with each car and at that point the drop off is not so big’.

Only 5th fastest in the final practice, Hagberg was a lot less happier than earlier in the day saying, ‘we seem to be going backwards’.  Just under 4/10th of a second of his team-mate’s 3-lap pace, the 2014 Finalist continued, ‘things we tested didn’t work so we go back to our earlier set-up for the morning’.

‘We made a big improvement over the day’ was Krapp’s reaction to his strong finish to the day.  The multiple World’s finalist added, ‘we worked good as a team and focused on shock set-up which I think is really important on this track’.  On driving the car with the new shock set-up he said, ‘it did not feel so fast but was easy to drive’ and that combination helped him improve his 3-laps by almost 1.2-seconds. The German however added he is ‘still not super happy’ as with running 2-cars he has only run two & a half minutes with each so they don’t know how it is for the full 5-minutes which has him a little concerned.

Rheinard’s reply to how Day 1 went was, ‘we are not so far off now’.  He continued, ‘we found the right direction as Krappy showed in the last one and his car is really good now’.  Having switched between two cars, chassis thickness the key difference between them, the 3-time Champion said he is ‘still not sure which car to use for the race’.  Not a fan of the rule that requires a driver to mark a single chassis for the race, he is still undecided on which car to present to technical inspection adding ‘the difference (between cars) is not so big’.

Only fifth fastest, a low position by his standards, Ronald Volker said the day was spent ‘testing a lot of things’.   The Yokomo driver continued, ‘we found positive and negative stuff’ with ‘testing 2 cars a big help in collecting set-ups’.  Having to mark one car for tomorrow he said he will discuss with the team the best set-up options and put them onto his race car adding ‘I’m looking forward to improving tomorrow’.  Asked about where he thinks he is over the length of a full qualifier he replied ‘its better for 5-minute but I still want to find the .1, .2 were missing over a single lap’.

Completing the Top 6 with his time from FP5, Marc Fischer said ‘In the end the day was quite OK’.  The factory Capricorn driver said , ‘its only 3-laps and 5-minutes will be a little different but I hope we are the same pace in qualifying’.  With it ‘easy’ to get his three lap pace, the German said the car felt good for the 7 laps he ran before switching car.  Having preferred the car fitted with the optional chassis earlier in practice, he said now he prefers the standard car but fitted with the optional bridge top deck.  Planning to tech this car, the only other change will be to fit a race body.

Star of this year’s ETS race in Luxembourg, his home track, VBC driver Lucas Urbain would end the day P7. The French driver said, ‘It went better than expected’. Running a new car, having only done a little testing with it in Luxembourg before coming out to Beijing, he said it is ‘way better than the previous car’.  Asked about the car he said, ‘is the same as Yannic Prumper used to good effect at the ETS in Trencin’, where he took it to 4th at the season finale last month. Unfortunately due to illness Prumper had to cancel his trip to China.  Declaring the car ‘really good on 3-laps’ he added, ‘but thats it as the drop off is too much after 2-minutes’. Feeling its a ‘balance issue’, he said the car starts with a little understeer and gets worse and so tonight they will try to come up with a set-up change that improves it for 5-minutes.  Behind Urbain, the Top 10 was completed by three former World Champions with Team Infinity drivers Andy Moore and Jilles Groskamp sandwiching the Kyosho of Atsushi Hara.

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