Kurzbuch tops Q1 from Pietsch in Germany

Simon Kurzbuch has TQ’d the opening round of qualifying at Round 3 of the ENS in Germany.  A very closely fought 4-minute qualifier, the Shepherd driver would top the times just ahead of Mugen’s Robert Pietsch by 0.38 of a second.  A bit of a gap back, Capricorn’s Dario Balestri would complete the Top 3 ahead of Shepherd team-mates Rick Vrielijnck, Oliver Mack and Francesco Tironi.

‘A perfect start’ was Kurzbuch’s reaction to his Q1 performance.  The Swiss ace said he got a really good run with no traffic and starting behind top seed Robert Pietsch he was able to gauge his pace throughout the heat adding he knew it was close between them for the TQ.  Describing his Velox V8 as ‘a little loose on the rear’ he said he would ‘perhaps change something to try make it more stable’ but overall it was nothing too major.

Pietsch said I can make excuses but I don’t think they make any difference to the fact he (Kurzbuch) was just faster’.  On the opening lap, the German said his engine was too lean due to the fuel tank being too full but this cleared itself. Losing his racing line on a lap in the middle of the qualifier, he said other than those two things he said the run was good run with his MRX-5 ‘really safe’ to drive and going up against Kurzbuch was ‘fun’.

‘All OK, only problem is Robert and Simon are too fast’, that was how a surprisingly upbeat Balestri viewed Q1.  The Italian added, ‘they test too much and are two of the best drivers’ so considering this and having some traffic issues ‘I am happy’. Pleased with how both his car and Tesla engine ran and he said with his limited testing he was happy with where he has ended the day in terms of set-up.

The number 2 seed after practice, Vrielijnck said his Velox V8 was good but engine issues stoped him from pushing the Velox V8 to its full potential.  Having his engine go lean but able to get it going again he said this cost him time.  Feeling things were still not right at the end of the run he is putting this down to a clutch problem.  Starting to come in early, he feels this caused the engine to get hot and go off tune but he hopes to have everything back good again for Q2 in the morning.

Fifth fastest, Mack said ‘for me I am happy with the result but the performance was only ok’.  Describing the engine he was running as ‘not the best’ he said ‘I was not fast in terms of lap times but I was very consistent’.  A Top Qualifier in last season’s ENS, ahead of tomorrow’s four scheduled qualifiers he will change engine.

Completing the Top 6, Tironi said the run ‘was OK’ pointing out it was very close between 4th to 6th, the three drivers separated by just 2/10ths of a second.  With his XRD engine running a bit rich at the start of the run, he said he could have pushed a little harder but instead opted to stay safe and ‘for today the result was OK’.  He said he was looking for ‘more rear traction and stability but that is the same problem as everyone else’ and he needs to think about what he can change to improve that.

View complete event results here.

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