Another TQ run from Kurzbuch

Picking up where he left off yesterday Simon Kurzbuch has TQ’d the second round of qualifying at the ENS in Germany. The Shepherd driver again topped the times from Robert Pietsch, the Mugen driver almost 4/10th off at the end of the 4-minutes.  As he did in Q1, Capricorn’s Dario Balestri completed the Top 3, the Italian closer to his rival’s pace this morning.  The biggest improvements on the start of Day 2 of the event would come from Aigen podium finisher Lars Hoppe and Belgian Robin D’Hondt who posted the 4th and 5th fastest times respectively ahead of Oliver Mack.  Unfortunately for Francesco Tironi his Q2 would be short lived.  Getting out of shape on lap 2, his Shepherd would get collected by the ARC of Silvio Hächler forcing Tironi out with a broken suspension with the incident also ending Andrea Lorenzi’s qualifier.

Describing his P4 run as ‘a little difficult’, Hoppe said the result was good after ‘a lot of problems in practice’.  With traction lower today following overnight rain,  the German said his R8.0 was much better in Q1 but the driver was terrible.  Making a ‘huge’ adjustment to the rear toe on his car in the warm-up for Q2, he said even with this the rear was still loose.  A two time ENS podium finisher, he reported his gearbox as changing too late adding he needs to adjust it for Q3.  Happy to open the day with a good run, he said hopefully for Q3 the temperature and traction will be higher as these conditions would suit his car better.

Running in the second fastest heat along with Hoppe, D’Hondt said he made ‘too many mistakes (himself)’ over the run.  Leading the efforts of small Italian manufacturer BMT since the departure of Daniele Ielasi, he said his Picco powered 984 was better today but still difficult to drive. Running a set-up that is ‘completely different to what (he) would run anywhere else’, he feels he can still find something to improve the car further for the Minidrom Ettlingen’s unique asphalt.

View complete event results here.

View our event image gallery here.