Tire gamble pays off for Völker as he wins Q1 from Rheinard and Orlowski
In the first Cayote Modified qualifier, the spectators around the track saw top seed Ronald Völker swinging out of the gate laying down some hot laps allowing him to open a gap of almost one second in the first minute of the race. Compared to Orlowski and Rheinard, Völker was on new tires which he had not broken in during one of the practice sessions on Thursday.
The gamble fully paid off for Völker as he was clearly the fastest in the first two minutes of the heat before the lap times were equaling with Rheinard at the end of the run. Ronald Völker took the win in Q1 by 0.9 seconds over Awesomatix driver Marc Rheinard, followed by reigning ETS champion Michal Orlowski (Schumacher) who was some 1.5 seconds behind Rheinard.
Serpent factory driver Dominic Greiner had a great run to P4 for the round and was followed by Sören Sparbier (5), Simon Lauter (6), Alexander Hagberg (7), Lucas Urbain (8), Adam Izsay (9), and Pekko Iivonen (10).
Izsay leads Xray 1-2-3 in opening round of quylifiyng
We saw a lot of surprises in the first round of Awesomatix Pro Stock qualifying. The top drivers had been on a very similar pace but we saw many of them crashing which is not happening a lot on this sharp end of the competition.
The first surprise: No Awesomatix car in the top 3. Top seed Olivier Bultynck crashed in lap three, Louis Kretschmer had to retire his car in lap 6, and Lukas Ellerbrock lost a massive amount of time in lap 7 of the run. That was a “slow” start into qualifying for the current Pro Stock empire around Max Mächler!
The second surprise: Jaroslav Jun. Kriz was crazy fast and posted the second fastest overall run coming out of the b-heat, followed by his Xray teammate Jan Ratheisky who was running in the same heat. A great start for these two drivers after not making into the top heat in seeding practice!
Another surprise: Sören Sparbier was sending his MTC-3 into the fence in lap 13 of Q1 while running in second place. A rarely seen mistake by the Mugen Seiki factory driver.
No surprise: Adam Izsay was very fast and took over the lead in lap two of the run. He did not slow down until the end and took the win of the top heat ahead of Roman Borschel and Enrico Jung. The overall top five after chaotic Q1 had been Adam Izsay (1 – Xray), Jaroslav Jun. Kriz (2-Xray), Jan Ratheisky (3-Xray), Roman Borschel (4-Aweosmatix), and Enrico Jung (5-ARC).
Langner takes early morning Q1 from Borschel and Schmid
Phil Langer had a perfect start into qualifying at ETS RD4 in Daun. The championship leader, who is still chasing his first FWD win, was able to win the opening round of qualifying with his privateer Awesomatix car. Langner had an advantage of 0.8 seconds over Roman Borschel. Langner and Borschel clearly had the best pace in Q1 as third placed driver Kevin Schmid was already 2 seconds behind them after the five-minute run. However, it was also a good Q1 for Schmid who is running FWD at the ETS for the first time this weekend.
Henrik Heitsch (ARC) posted the fourth quickest overall runtime coming out of the b-sort and was followed by the Xray of Gergö Valent, and the ARC of Luca Romondia who is looking fast on 21.5 Stock as well this weekend.
Jill Bartsch (Awesomatix) took P7 for the round with his time coming out of the third fastest group – not bad at all! Loris Buchhalt (Iris), Adam Southgate (Iris), and Jacques Libar (Xray) rounded out the top 10 in Q1 of the FlySky FWD class here in Daun.
Mateo takes Q1 out of the second fastest group!
After being top seed on Thursday, Michel Zierold was starting into Q1 with a clean track in front of him. Xray`s David Ehrbar was his strongest contender and both drivers posted 15.8 lap times on top of the board. Ehrbar tried all he could but came short to Zierold by just 0.111 of a second.
However, the overall time from Zierold was not enough to TQ the complete round because former 40+ Masters champion Toni Mateo was laying down a ballistic run in the b-heat to outpace Zierold by 0.023 of a second.
Mateo took full points from Q1 and is now in contention for the pole position here in Daun after not being fully on pace in seeding practice.
Casper Morgen was “best of the rest” and took P3 away from Q1 when he crossed the line half a second behind Ehrbar. Mirco Thalheimer and Philipp Hagnauer completed the top 5 for the round which was
ARC driver Romondia takes Q1 from RC Maker`s Reip
After being top seed on Thursday, Luca Romondia left no doubt that he will be the man to beat in the Hobbywing 21.5 Stock class this weekend. Romondia had a very clean run with the all-new ARC A11 on track and was super consistent throughout the whole race. RC Maker driver David Reip was pushing hard and could stay within one second until he lost 2 seconds of time in lap 16 of the race.
Romondia took Q1 by 4.1 seconds ahead of Reip and it was Matheo Buchhalt (Iris) who took third place from Q3 after “only” being 10th quickest after seeding. Wolfgang Swoboda and Radek Ruszkowski completed the top 5 for the round!
Stiebler wins Q1 after dominant on-track performance!
Top seed Andreas Stiebler was in control of the first Formula qualifier which he won ahead of Xray`s very own Martin Hudy. Stiebler posted the fastest lap of the heat (14.474) and had a gap of 2.1 seconds over Hudy as they crossed the finish line.
David Ehrbar had a good first qualifier as well and finished on P3 ahead of Balint Rajki, Michael Lipperheide, and Robert Kampehl. Can Schumacher driver Andreas Stiebler continue to hold off the many Xray cars behind him in Q2?
