Matsukura takes opening qualifier under lights in China
Infinity’s Naoto Matsukura has taken the opening round of qualifying under the lights at the Asia Touring Car Championship in China, the number 2 seed topping the delayed and eventful Q1 ahead of Axon’s Akio Sobue. With rain after seeding delaying the schedule at Hongyu GDC and a full round of practice run to get the track back up to speed, when the final run of the evening came around Top Seed Bruno Coelho would struggle. The rear of his Infinity clearly not at one with the track. Losing the car a number of times, Matsukura lucky to not collect his team-mate, the World Champion would end up P9 at the conclusion of the round. With Matsukura taking the TQ by 1.2-seconds from Sobue, only Jin Sawada managed a faster lap time but pushing the limits of his electrics the Japanese Xray driver would run out of battery with a lap to go costing him a certain Top 2 run as he got a DNF. Behind the Top 2, Infinity’s Ryosuke Yamamoto made it a Japanese trio at the top of the times ahead of the all new Schumachers of Michal Orlowski and Pekko Iivonen with Awesomatix’s Lucas Urbain completing the Top 6 for what could prove a critical run. Having originally planned two qualifiers today because of the threat of rain, but only get one, the chances of a wet day tomorrow seem even higher as drivers left the track for the evening.
Summing up his run, Matsukura said, ‘At the beginning I was nervous a bit because I could not see my car. My body is yellow and a little bit shiny so in the chicane it was very difficult to see but the car handling was pretty good, the pace was not bad.’ He continued, ‘At the start the car was a little nervous so I couldn’t hold the inside line but the time was not so bad. Then after driving for a while the tyres came in and I could make my best lap.’ Having said at the end of seeding he would change his set-up for Q1 , asked if he did he said, ‘I changed it a little bit in the front. We made it less low in the front and it was much better. I think if there is no rain tomorrow we will try a bit more lower. If it rains the the traction will be a bit low so we will think what to do for that.’ Asked about run time, that a issue facing all drivers given the size and speed of the track, the multiple World Champion said,’ It’s border line. I think one more lap maybe we can but a second lap we cannot, it is on the limit.’ Pitting next to Coelho, asking the Portuguese driver what had caused his issue he replied, ‘I don’t know yet, we need to find out what was the problem because our car was pretty good up until now and very stable. Now it was just spinning out everywhere so I don’t know. It was something wrong with the rear or the tyres.’
‘Just OK’ was how Sobue summed up his opening effort. He said while his car balance was better in Q1 than before, the track with its high traction and being more sticky had caused him to drive too safe at the start of the 5-minutes. ‘I didn’t want to traction roll because I saw in the heats before many cars traction roll. It was difficult for just 2-laps but after my car was easy but I was too cautious at the start.’ Asked about tomorrow, his immediate response, ‘tomorrow is rain’ he added, ‘I hope we continue to race but I’m not sure given the weather forecast so I hope we can at least get a second qualifier Sunday morning.’
Pleased with how his car went in seeding and opting to leave it the same for Q1, Yamamoto was happy with his P3 performance. The 2022 Japanese National Championship runner-up, said it was a clean run and the 26-year-old plans for now to keep his Speciale unchanged for Q2.
Reacting to his P4 for the opening qualifier, Orlowski said, ‘The car didn’t feel good, the track changed and keeps changing every run. I find it different every time and its been a struggle but we are hear to learn for the Worlds so its all good.’ Asked about his programme with team-mate Mattia Collina, the Italian 17th fastest, the reigning TITC Champion said, ‘He is trying one thing and I am trying one thing and if we really like something then we try it on each others car.’ For the next qualifier the Polish driver said, ‘we see about the rain, I am not really too worried about it and we’ll try to think of ideas of how to make the car the best for this track.’ Asked the biggest point he is working on, he said, ‘Cornering. I have to adjust my steering input going through the corner. I can’t use the steering lock and just hold it for the corner, I always have to re-adjust and I lose a lot of time and I don’t have confidence. It is unpredictable’
‘Not too bad’ was how Iivonen summed up Q1. He continued, ‘I have been struggling a bit up to now. The first days the car was really really good, it was amazing. I was matching the pace of others but the track has been changing a lot. Even though I have been practicing here a couple of times before (this weekend) the grip is way more than before so it is changing quite a lot’ Better know for his 1:8 Offroad exploits, main the Worlds final at the eBuggy Worlds in Portugal this year, hecontinued, ‘I think now the car was the best and we have figured some things out and it was really good. I had a couple of mistakes at the start but it was a pretty clean run for me and I got back to the rhythm and it was pretty good.’ For Q2, based on it not rain, the Finn said, ‘I think I will keep it the same and see how it goes tomorrow. Hopefully no rain, really wish, because I think it (the car) will be good.’
Leading the Awesomatix charge at the Asia Touring Car Championship, team-mate Marc Rheinard opting to not race but join for post race testing, Urbain said, ‘It was a bit too difficult to drive and I am kicking myself because I had 2 even 3 bobbles and it cost me like 2-seconds or something and if I look at the times I would have been fighting for TQ, but also I think everyone had some bobbles or drove too careful, one or the other. My car was just too difficult, too much on the noise and it was a bit of a challenge to keep it on the asphalt if I am honest.’ Asked if this was due to the night conditions he replied, ‘I don’t know. Right after the rain and we drove again it was already like this which was unexpected. I don’t know if the rain changed the track slightly and now everyone is a little bit off and we need to adjust for tomorrow or if tomorrow is back to normal. We are all learning I guess.’ On Saturday’s action he said, ‘we will see how it is first unless I have some clever idea overnight and I implement it for tomorrow, we’ll see at dinner what I can find out.’
