Ronald Völker has topped the second round of qualifying, with the late-evening run showing up a rather different top five result to the afternoon’s Q1. Stopping the clock 1.2 seconds ahead of arch-rival Marc Rheinard RC, the Team Yokomo lead driver said that it was “great to get a clean, quick run”. Commenting how tough an ETS event is, with “four or five hours break, it is easy to loose your momentum [between runs]”. Having made no changes to his BD10 from earlier in the day, he said the difference was “driving with no mistakes this time”. He will think about any changes overnight, expecting that as the Volante hand-out tyres get older, he may need more rear grip to keep the car “safe to drive”.
Marc Rheinard took second in the round, the TONISPORT driver said his Awesomatix was “pretty much the same as before” but he had “a few rough laps, but still very happy to have a 1 and a 2 from today”. Now firmly locked in to the front of the A Final, he will try some “bigger changes for tomorrow” as he still searches for a little more steering in the slow corners on the fast, but technical, Daun circuit.
Backing up his Yokomo team leader with a third in round, Christopher Krapp joked that “this time, I am happy with the driver”. Pointing out there was still a gap to close to get on pace with Volker and Rheinard, the two German World Champions looking like the class of the field this weekend, he said his run was a little disrupted by current ETS Champion Bruno Coelho. With Coelho rolling his car out of the track at the half way point, the Portuguese driver re-joined immediately behind Krapp and sat on the rear bumper of the German for the remaining two minutes. Krapp commented that “it was close, but luckily all was good in the end”.
Fourth in the round was the best of the XRAY runners, with Alexander Hagberg putting himself back into the mix at the sharp end after a tough Q1. As his team-mate Coelho had experienced in Q1, the British-based driver from Sweden said he “struggled in the first minute of the run”. Noting he had “good pace at the end”, his focus for tomorrow is to “improve the car in that first minute – both some small changes to the car and tyre prep changes”. Rounding out the top five was Awesomatix driver Freddy Südhoff. Sudhoff said his run was “OK, but strangely I was missing traction”. Elaborating further, the driver, who took his first ETS victory last season in Madrid, added that “the rear wanted to snap mid-corner, so it was very difficult to drive”. Set to discuss the car and possible changes for tomorrow with his team overnight, Sudhoff sits sixth in the overnight standings.
In Pro Stock, Jan Ratheisky made it back-to-back TQ runs as he again set the fastest time. When asked, he replied that he “drove the same as the first qualifier” and also explained that his usual game-plan for qualifying is “not to drive full punch, but drive consistent for the whole run”. Not yet thinking about any changes for tomorrow, he will look forward to a good nights sleep as the long ETS days start to take their toll on the drivers. Second in the round was fellow Xray driver, Leo Arnold. The driver, who represents Monaco, said this time his car was “easier to drive, with less stopping in the corners”. Saying that he felt he could have taken the fight to Ratheisky, he had one traction roll just as he started to drive harder in the closing stages. Rounding out the top five was Lukas Ellerbrock, the German Xray driver around one second behind Arnold when the clock stopped after five minutes.
Q3 and Q4 will take place tomorrow, where the overall TQ, and indeed all ten fixed A Final places, are set to be decided.
