Ronald Völker has topped the second round of qualifying, with the late-evening run showing up a rather different top five result to the afternoon’s Q1. Stopping the clock 1.2 seconds ahead of arch-rival Marc Rheinard RC, the Team Yokomo lead driver said that it was “great to get a clean, quick run”. Commenting how tough an ETS event is, with “four or five hours break, it is easy to loose your momentum [between runs]”. Having made no changes to his BD10 from earlier in the day, he said the difference was “driving with no mistakes this time”. He will think about any changes overnight, expecting that as the Volante hand-out tyres get older, he may need more rear grip to keep the car “safe to drive”.

Marc Rheinard took second in the round, the TONISPORT driver said his Awesomatix was “pretty much the same as before” but he had “a few rough laps, but still very happy to have a 1 and a 2 from today”. Now firmly locked in to the front of the A Final, he will try some “bigger changes for tomorrow” as he still searches for a little more steering in the slow corners on the fast, but technical, Daun circuit.

Backing up his Yokomo team leader with a third in round, Christopher Krapp joked that “this time, I am happy with the driver”. Pointing out there was still a gap to close to get on pace with Volker and Rheinard, the two German World Champions looking like the class of the field this weekend, he said his run was a little disrupted by current ETS Champion Bruno Coelho. With Coelho rolling his car out of the track at the half way point, the Portuguese driver re-joined immediately behind Krapp and sat on the rear bumper of the German for the remaining two minutes. Krapp commented that “it was close, but luckily all was good in the end”.

Fourth in the round was the best of the XRAY runners, with Alexander Hagberg putting himself back into the mix at the sharp end after a tough Q1. As his team-mate Coelho had experienced in Q1, the British-based driver from Sweden said he “struggled in the first minute of the run”. Noting he had “good pace at the end”, his focus for tomorrow is to “improve the car in that first minute – both some small changes to the car and tyre prep changes”. Rounding out the top five was Awesomatix driver Freddy Südhoff. Sudhoff said his run was “OK, but strangely I was missing traction”. Elaborating further, the driver, who took his first ETS victory last season in Madrid, added that “the rear wanted to snap mid-corner, so it was very difficult to drive”. Set to discuss the car and possible changes for tomorrow with his team overnight, Sudhoff sits sixth in the overnight standings.

In Pro Stock, Jan Ratheisky made it back-to-back TQ runs as he again set the fastest time. When asked, he replied that he “drove the same as the first qualifier” and also explained that his usual game-plan for qualifying is “not to drive full punch, but drive consistent for the whole run”. Not yet thinking about any changes for tomorrow, he will look forward to a good nights sleep as the long ETS days start to take their toll on the drivers. Second in the round was fellow Xray driver, Leo Arnold. The driver, who represents Monaco, said this time his car was “easier to drive, with less stopping in the corners”. Saying that he felt he could have taken the fight to Ratheisky, he had one traction roll just as he started to drive harder in the closing stages. Rounding out the top five was Lukas Ellerbrock, the German Xray driver around one second behind Arnold when the clock stopped after five minutes.

Q3 and Q4 will take place tomorrow, where the overall TQ, and indeed all ten fixed A Final places, are set to be decided.

The opening qualifier in Daun was set to be something special, as the close practice times and extended track time made the field look closer than it has been in recent years. That played out to be true as the times were incredibly close and just a few small errors determined the top placings. At the end of five minutes, TONISPORT’s Marc Rheinard came through to set the fastest time with his Awesomatix chassis. Reacting to his win, the German reacted by saying “of course it’s a good start”. Elaborating more, trying to think of when he last topped a qualifier at an ETS, he said the result was as the result of “the perfect work by the whole team” – Marc now being more formally supported by Awesomatix for this event and for the rest of the 2020 season. However, despite the pace in Q1, he wasn’t completely happy with everything, saying that the “car was too easy to drive. I need more steering in the hairpins”. Seeming more energised coming into this race, he ended by saying “it shows everyone that we [him and team-mate Yannic Prümper] can still drive”.

Prumper came through to set the second best time, after mistakes from Ronald Völker and Bruno Coelho pushed them down the ranking. Prumper noted that he had a “bad start”, with the car being “super loose for the first two minutes”. Following the initial stint, once the car came in he said he had “more traction and it was more stable. Then I could push as hard as possible”. Rounding out the top three was an impressive recovery from Volker. The lead Team Yokomo factory driver initially lead the heat, before “heads up racing with Marc made me push a bit too much and I touched a kerb” – resulting in his car taking a roll. Despite dropping as low as eighth in the running, he said “the car didn’t drop pace and I could put in the laptimes still”, before looking to the next round by saying “It’s very promising for Q2 – but of course disappointing to throw away a potential TQ in the first run”.

Coelho was in the mix with Rheinard and Volker through the early stages, but then admitted he “made a big mistake on the fifth or sixth lap”. Landing back on his wheels, the current ETS and World Champion took fourth in the round, four hundredths of a second back on Volker, and just one hundredth up on fifth place finisher, Christopher Krapp. Thinking about changes to his XRAY chassis, Coelho explained that he “needs to find a different additive strategy – the car is very different to drive in the first minute. The laptimes show the car is not slow, so we just have to find something in the beginning [of the run]”. With Krapp making it two Yokomo cars in the top five, the German reacted by saying he was “happy with the result, but not with the driver”. Loosing a top-three result by a few hundredths of a second, he said the main change for Q2 would be “to change to my other tyre set”. Looking at who he feels he needs to race against, the former ETS winner said “there is a bit of a gap to the usual top three [Rheinard, Volker and Coelho], but I feel I can race with Yannic, Freddy, and Alexander Hagberg and try to close the gap to the top three”.

In the Pro Stock class, Jan Ratheisky showed everyone the way home, but he explained he “made some small driving mistakes”. Feeling “comfortable” with his Xray, he admitted that he “didn’t push super hard” as he “couldn’t risk flipping”. Looking to Q2, he will try less timing on the additive as he tries to “free the car up more”. Taking second in the round, popular Belgian Olivier Bultynck said that whilst he “struggled in practice, I didn’t actually make any changes for Q1. Maybe the track came to the car, or maybe I just got better!”. Reflecting on the run, the Awesomatix driver felt that “two small wobbles probably cost me TQ this time”. Rounding out the top three, fellow Awesomatix driver Simon Lauter said his car was “very good”. He had some concerns after second practice – using some rather choice words but toning it down to summarise as “just no pace, so I was pretty unsure how it would be [for the first qualifier]”. Wanting to make some “little tweaks” ahead of the second round, he is still unsure what they will be “but I have four hours left to decide” – the 410+ entries making for plenty of time between rounds for the drivers to work on their cars.

Controlled practice took place on Friday morning as Round 2 of the 2019-2020 Euro Touring Series got underway. Taking place for the third consecutive year at the Sporthotel in Daun, Germany, the large track with a unique shape poses interesting challenges for the near 420 entries this weekend.

Fastest in the Controlled Practice rounds, his CP1 time being the fastest by just one hundredth of a second, defending ETS Champion Bruno Coelho said the event was going “very good”. Noting that yesterday’s additional practice day, added due to the high entry count, was really useful to allow them to test and get a good setup, he said even this morning they were still testing things. Making changes for CP2 which clearly didn’t work out, the Portuguese driver said he will switch back to his CP1 settings and work on his XRAY T4 ‘20 further in qualifying.

Second in Practice was Ronald Völker. The German driver, when questioned about the race so far, smiled and simply said “everything is going well”. Hotly tipped to be the driver to beat this weekend, following his carpet wins at the EWS International and GP3F races either side of Christmas, Volker said the only change for qualifying will be to revert to his tyres from CP1, feeling the car had a slightly nicer balance on these. Commenting on the track, the Team Yokomo pilot said it was “awesome, the best we have had in Daun”.

Third quickest, one tenth behind his fellow German over the three lap seeding times, Marc Rheinard is making his ETS debut with an Awesomatix chassis. The former Creation Model Ltd. Infinity driver said that whilst he is not a formal part of the Awesomatix factory squad, being supported and now employed by TONISPORT, they are providing him with some great support and he is working well with new team-mates such as Freddy Südhoff (who was fourth fastest in practice), allowing them to work through a number of settings. Now set to de-brief with the team, Yannic Prümper making up the top five also with an Awesomatix, they will look to combine the findings to have a car ready to go for Q1 at lunchtime today.