Coelho on pole at ETS Netherlands

Bruno Coelho will start on pole for tomorrow’s Yokomo Euro Touring Series fifth round at Apeldoorn, the Xray driver’s fourth TQ of the season moving him to within touching distance of his third consecutive ETS title.  Having convincingly set the pace in controlled practice yesterday, Coelho got the day of to the perfect start by taking the opening qualifier but he couldn’t keep his car on the track in Q2 & 3.  This allowed Ronald Volker to TQ the second and Christopher Krapp to top Q3 meaning it would all come down to the fourth & final qualifier.  Initially it was Volker who set the pace but Naoto Matsukura now had a quick car going to the top of the timing screens but all the time Coelho was getting into his rhythm conscious he couldn’t afford another roll.  While Volker would push him hard, in the end Coelho’s earlier form was back and he completed the 5-minutes well clear with Nicholas Lee coming through for a P2 run ahead of Matsukura and Volker, who will line up 2nd tomorrow.  In what has been a strong weekend for Yokomo, Christopher Krapp will start 3rd with team-mate Yannick Prumper fourth. With Coelho’s TQ eliminating team-mate Alexander Hagberg from the title fight, now only Marc Rheinard remains but he must win tomorrow which is looking like a tall order from 5th on the grid.

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Krapp tops Q3 at ETS Netherlands

Christopher Krapp has become the third different driver to top qualifying at ETS Netherlands, the Yokomo driver hitting the top in the third & penultimate round at the Apeldoorn track. With top seed Bruno Coelho once again making an error, this time on his second lap, Krapp would set the pace eventually finishing half a second up on a much improved Marc Rheinard, the Infinity driver having seeded in the second fastest heat.  Behind, Yannic Prumper would complete the Top 3 as team-mate Ronald Volker, who took the previous qualifier, opted to save his third set of allocated tyres for the final qualifier.  On used tyres Volker would finish well down the order but he goes in the deciding qualifier leading a Yokomo 1,2,3 at the top of the provisional grid standings.  After trouble in the first two qualifiers, Viktor Wilck would return to his seeding form and post a P4 for the round ahead of Marco Kaufmann and ETS returnee Michal Orlowski.

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Volker TQs 2nd qualifier as Coelho suffers early error

Ronald Volker has TQ’d the second round of qualifying at the Yokomo Euro Touring Series in the Netherlands.  The Yokomo driver topped the times after a close fight with Freddy Südhoff, the two Germans separated by 4/10ths of a second. Having taken Q1 in convincing style, it was again Bruno Coelho who set the early pace but on his third lap he suffered an error on the curbing that cost him 4 & a half seconds that would leave him with a P10 at the end of the 5-minutes.  While Coelho had a bad round, for team-mate Alexander Hagberg Q2 would be a turning moment for the Swede as he completed the Top 3 from the second fastest heat. With Yannic Prumper, 3rd in Q1, another to make an error when he rolled coming onto the front straight, it was Christopher Krapp who was the next best Yokomo with the fourth fastest time but his pace was over a second off that of his team-mate’s TQ pace.  Behind him ETS Andernach runner-up Naoto Matsukura was another big improvement coming in as the fastest Infinity for the round in P5 ahead of Nicholas Lee.

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Coelho takes Q1 at ETS Netherlands

Bruno Coelho has taken the opening round of qualifying at the Yokomo Euro Touring Series in Apeldoorn this morning. With qualifying originally scheduled for yesterday evening until light rain put a stop to the action at the Dutch track, the morning timing of Q1 didn’t slow the Xray driver in any way with him continuing to have a distinct advantage over his rivals.  As in seeding yesterday it was Ronald Volker who would be the closest to Coelho, albeit the Yokomo driver being 4 & a half second slower over the 5-minutes.  With things much closer between the rest of the field, Yannic Prumper would opening Round 5 of the championship with a P3 run just ahead of Lucas Urbain, Jilles Groskamp and Jan Ratheisky, them all covered by just half a second.

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Coelho top seed on Apeldoorn debut

Update – With a rain shower striking just after 20:30, the decision has been made to call time on the rest of today’s action at Apeldoorn. Having already lost 6-hours to morning rain, rather than make the day any longer for drivers the top heat of Formula and all of the Modified groups will now run Q1 tomorrow morning.

Bruno Coelho is the top seed for the fifth round of the Yokomo Euro Touring Series at Apeldoorn in the Netherlands.  The Xray driver’s debut at the track, he backed up his CP1 pace by knocking 6/10ths of a second off his fastest 3-consecutive laps.  While the Top 13 drivers would all improve on the times from the first controlled practice, Coelho extended his advantage with Yokomo’s Ronald Volker again his closest rival only this time the advantage increased from 4/100ths to 2/10ths of a second. Behind them, Jilles Groskamp made a similar sized improvement in pace to Coelho to put his Infinity 3rd on the final seeding time sheets with Viktor Wilck improving one position to end practice 4th.  Making it five different manufacturers at the front, Freddy Sudhoff found the pace that escaped him in CP1 to post the 5th fastest time ahead of Awesomatix team-mate Lucas Urbain.  With Coelho looking good at the top of the times, the only remaining title challengers Marc Rheinard and Alexander Hagberg are going to have to qualify from the second fastest heat with Hagberg ending up 12th fastest three places ahead of Rheinard.

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Coelho tops CP1 at ETS Netherlands

After a rain delayed started to the day, it was Bruno Coelho who would top the first round of controlled practice on the Yokomo Euro Touring Series return to Apeldoorn in the Netherlands.  The reigning champion’s first time to the track, with rain also hampering yesterday free practice, the Xray driver put in the fastest 3-consecutive laps ahead of free practice pace setter Ronald Volker with a time of 43.641 compared to Volker’s 43.682.  Backing up Yokomo’s strong performance in free practice, Yannic Prumper would record the third fastest time ahead of the Infinity of Akio Sobue and Serpent of Viktor Wilck with Loic Jasmin’s Awesomatix completing the Top 6.  As the only two remaining challengers to preventing Coelho from making it a hat trick of ETS titles, Marc Rheinard and Alexander Hagberg could only manage 9th and 11th in CP1 and will be hoping for better in CP2 in order to make the top heat for qualifying.

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