Coelho tops 1:8 practice in Ettlingen
Having taken an unexpected 1:8 win at the Euro Nitro Series season opener in France, Bruno Coelho has topped seeding practice at Round 2 of the championship in Germany. The Xray driver was quickest over 3-laps from reigning champion Simon Kurzbuch with Robert Pietsch completing the Top 3 at Minidrom Ettlingen. With the track’s unique fine asphalt surface challenging drivers in terms of them finding a set-up that gives consistency even over a short run, best of the Italian’s in practice would be Carmine Raiola who posted the fourth fastest time ahead of fellow countrymen Mirko Salemi and former race winner Dario Balestri.
Setting his best time in the first of the 2 rounds of controlled practice, Coelho said, ‘Overall its very good but in the last one the engine was a little rich and the clutch was not perfect but we are on the pace’. Having partly put his 1:8 success in France down to the fact Mulhouse was not a typical 1:8 track, asked if he felt his pace today was a better endorsement of the improvements made to the RX8 he replied, ‘its very good to be able to show again that we have made a lot progress with our 1:8 car, it is working really well again here’. The Portuguese driver added however that the track surface is presenting a new set of challenges with the car changing quite a bit over the distance of the run despite there being ‘not much tyre wear’. He said the issue is the mix of banked and flat corners as they each wear the tyre differently giving a ‘super strange’ feeling. While easy to get a fast car for a lap he said it is hard to get it ‘uniform for 5-minutes’ making it ‘difficult to manage the set-up’. ‘Still tweaking the set-up’, he plans ‘a few changes for Q1’.
Only 0.054 off Coelho, Kurzbuch wasn’t fazed by being second to Coelho with the World Champion pleased that he could improve his Shepherd for CP2. Winner of this event last year, he said ‘my 3-laps are OK and the rest of the run is quite good’ but like Coelho said, ‘we are still working to get more consistency from the car which due to characteristics of this track is one of the main challenges’. He added, ‘the base set-up of the car is very good and we are now just making small adjustments to find the best way for the conditions. One of the things he will try for Q1 is to change the position of the bodyshell.
‘Its getting better and better’ was Pietsch reaction to putting his car in the Top 3. The Mugen designer said he was having a better day today mainly due to his driving. Having been focused on Mugen’s entry into the Electric Touring Car market for the last two months he said didn’t get to do any 1:8 practice before the event and as he ‘not so young anymore’ he was having problems with his lines in free practice yesterday. The former ENS Champion is also running a number of new parts on his car the Japanese manufacturer is testing for the World Championship and as they get a better understanding of the effects they have on the car the more they are able to adjust the set-up to suit.
Heading the large Infinity charge, Raiola summed up his performance in practice as ‘not bad’. The World Championship finalist continued he ‘need(s) more traction’ but overall his car was better today than yesterday. Admitting to not being a fan of the track surface, he intended to complete the first qualifier on used tyres. Team-mate Balestri had the opposite opinion about his performance saying his car was better yesterday. Winner here in 2015, he feels both the tyres and the track have changed and they now need to find a way back to the set-up they had yesterday when he was second fastest behind Kurzbuch.
Having departed from BMT after a brief stint with the Italian company, Salemi was pleased to take his self modified Mugen to the fifth fastest time. A multiple ENS Finalist driving for BP Racing, the Italian said he has been happy with how his cars has run since first hitting the track here yesterday and with some small set-up tweaks it is easy to drive. Set to run the car unchanged for Q1, the first two qualifiers taking place this evening, he will make an engine change to one of his ‘good’ ones.
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