Bruno Coelho will kick off qualifying at the ITSC World Championship with the No.1 on his car after the Xray driver set the fastest time of the two timed practices. The second seeding round saw the reigning Champion again set the fastest 3-consecutive laps improving on his Free Practice pace by more than 3/10ths of a second. Behind him an improved Akio Sobue was 2nd fastest having earlier rounded out the Top 6 for Free Practice. Also improving was Viktor Wilck as the 2014 and 2016 podium finisher completed the Top 3 in Gubbio, Italy.
Reacting his his performance Coelho had little to say other than that his ‘car is working good’ and agreeing everything was going to plan so far. Asked about Q1, which will bring Day 1 of proceeding to close on a cooling evening track, the Portuguese driver replied, ‘we don’t really know what the conditions will be but they should not change much’.
‘The driver is still so so, but the car is now better’, was how Sobue summed up his P2 seeding. The TITC Champion said his 3-laps that counted had a small mistake and he believes it will be a different story over 5-minutes adding ‘I just can’t say if it is going to be good or bad for me’. With rain forecast for tomorrow Q1 could prove crucial for drivers with the Axon driver saying he will just check over his car for the first qualifier and leave the set-up as is.
Wilck said, ‘I don’t read too much into the 3-laps but it is very close’. Asked about his improved pace over free practice, the Infinity driver said he changed body shell from Xtreme’s Speciale to Twister and this suit the conditions. ‘I normally prefer the Speciale but the Twister was faster for the conditions.’ He added, ‘I think it also helped us (Infinity’s car) that it was a little cooler conditions for CP2’. Planning to ‘leave everything for now’ in terms of his set-up, he said the goal for Q1 is to ‘get some good points’ from the run. Pulling up early like the majority of the drivers the Swede described the rule on having to use a set of tyres from controlled practice for Q1 as a ‘silly rule’.
An upbeat Christopher Krapp would set the fourth fastest time. While Yokomo team-mate Yannic Prümper had problems with an out of balance front tyre, Krapp explained, ‘we didn’t really touch the car and just worked on adapting to the circuit’. The German continued, ‘We are over the 3-laps and have been focusing on 5-minutes. We didn’t slow after the first minute. We didn’t practice here so we have no time to do this shit’. He concluded, ‘lets see what the night conditions bring but so far it is going really well for us’.
‘It was better than the 1st run’ was Jilles Groskamp’s description of the final practice. ‘Honestly we didn’t change much so I think it being a little cooler suited our car. My 3-laps was Ok and I was one of the few to finish the 5-minutes so I am happy with that also. Bruno is too far away (on pace) but the 5-minutes without problems comes down to the dots. The light of the evening is also different now so let’s see’.
Dropping to P6 having been Coelho’s closest challenge in Free Practice, Marc Rheinard said, ‘it felt like I had no grip at all. The car was really good for the final free practice but now no grip with the same set-up, it’s a bit weird’. Asked about 5-minute pace the multiple World Champion said, ‘I don’t push because for the (tire) rule so I don’t know if it is any better’.
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