Greiner produces first TQ run in Q4

Second in the opening two qualifiers, Dominic Greiner finally put his Serpent top of the timesheets at Round 3 of the Euro Nitro Series at the Hockenheimring when he set the pace in Q4.  Having had engine issues in Q3, the Round 2 race winner would have a perfect run to head the times from HB’s Teemu Leino, who in Q3 produced his second TQ run of the event, with Serpent team-mate Mark Green completing the Top 3 as the sun starts to come back.

‘Perfect’ was how Greiner described his run praising in particular his Picco engine.  In Q3 the cooler conditions left the 21-year-old struggling with an engine that was too rich due its large cooling head, that was perfect for yesterday’s much hotter weather, hampering it from get up to full temperature.  Changing to an engine with a much smaller cooling head for Q4, he said the tune was perfect something which was highlighted by his fastest lap time for the round.  Making an adjustment to the 748 Natrix’s toe-out in the warm-up before the run he said this suited the conditions and for the penultimate qualifier he said he might go a little more for the next one to further improve the cars steering out of the corners.

Having TQ’d Q3 with the fastest time so far, Leino was content with his second in Q4 which moves hime a step closer to his second overall TQ of the season.  Happy with his Novarossi powered R10, making no changes to it between the two rounds, the Finn said inconsistencies in the tyres are the biggest factor to a good run adding his Q4 set was not a good one with the front inside tyre wearing excessively compared to the outside.  Planning to leave his car the same for the fifth of the six qualifiers, he said he hopes to be able to wrap up the overall TQ a round early.

‘Difficult to beat the professional drivers but I am happy with third’ was Mark Green’s response to his Q4 run.  Having also posted the third fastest time in the previous qualifier, the British National Champion said his Serpent 748 Natrix is ‘well in the ball park’ now in terms of set-up and it just needs ‘some fine tuning to get the last bit out of it’.  Running on full size unscrubbed tyres, he said the car worked really good and for Q5 he will again go with a new set of the Enneti tyres.  With the car ‘very easy to drive’ he said looking forward to tomorrow that means he has a good finals car.

Backing up his TQ in today’s opening round with a second in Q3, Volker could only manage fourth in Q4.  With Robert Pietsch changing to softer shock oil in the prototype Mugen MTX-6, Volker said he was ‘suffering a little with the feel of the car’.  Lacking a good overall balance he said it was difficult to drive.  With Volker very much just the driver this weekend, Pietsch and mechanic Freddy Sudhoff will revert the rear shocks back to how they ran them in Q3 while going for harder oil in the front.

Posting the fifth fastest time Dirk Wischnewski described changes to his Orcan powered Shepherd as a ‘slight improvement’.  Changing the front shock position he said it gave him more steering but still not enough.  Having what he described as ‘two rough laps’, the former European Champion will continue to make set-up changes in his quest to get rid of the understeer that has hampered him so far.

Making a spectacular finish to the qualifier as he car got airborne after clipping the curbing at the final corner which cause the car to fly into the pitlane, Eric Dankel completed the Top 6.  Having been happy with his Melzo winning Maxima powered Capricorn in the morning’s Q2 run, he said it has just gradually gotten worse since then then.  With traffic ruining his Q3, him forced over the curbing as he tried to lap a bunch of cars which resulted in him ending up on his roof, he said while the car has good initial steering in the ‘mid corner it is horrible’.  Putting much of this down to the changing track conditions for the next run he will try harder shock oil as well as running a fresh set of tyres having ran used last time out.

After a good Q3 when he posted the 4th fastest time, KM Racing Silvio Hachler would DNF in Q4.  Suffering from his Novarossi engine running too lean which was particularly apparent at the end of the straight he said this lead him to making a mistake there.  Clipping the curbing in the roll the engine in his HK-1 ‘Meen Version’ would cut out.

View the complete results here.

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