Neumann once again fastest in Q2

Jorn Neumann has backed up his first round TQ with another in the second qualifier, the margin much smaller this time around due to most of the front runners, including the German himself, making a number of mistakes. Joona Haatanen took 2nd with the all new Associated B74 with Daniel Kobbevik heading home Michal Orlowski who again had a number of errors, despite being the fastest on outright pace, the top 4 covered by less than a second. Bruno Coelho would take 5th ahead of Hupo Honigl with Wesley van Helmond ending up in 7th. Admitting to be a big fan of Astro turf, compared to carpet, due to its forgiving nature in terms of setup, Jorn described his race saying ‘It started good with Bruno pushing very hard, then he made a mistake, I then had a comfortable lead and then I crashed’, before saying ‘then things got interesting’. Despite it being very close at the end and the lead group switching positions throughout, the German could take the round. ‘On lap times the top 3 are very close’ continuing by saying that for Q3 they will make some adjustments based on the temperature of the track which is expected to cool and lose grip as qualifying runs into the evening.

‘Much better, we tried a bunch of things’ was how Joona described his run to 2nd, the Finnish teenager slowly coming to terms with his new car, having never run on astro with it before. Changing the gearbox as well as going harder in oils which improved it a lot, Joona says the main characteristic of the new car is that it is much easier to drive and faster, saying there is no need to be punched the whole time to achieve the same results. Remarking that the car also seems to run a lot freer Joona only plans a small change to the rear of the car for Q3, ending by saying ‘it’s looking good’.

Kobbevik was top Xray for the round, the Norwegian driver pleased with his pace saying ‘it was a good one, I was not so fast but consistent’. Making a lot of mistakes on his way to 7th in Q1, he said he managed to eliminate a lot of those mistakes in his Q2 run. Not sure about what to change for Q3, Daniel said ‘my car is now good but not super fast’.

Michal Orlowski is having a tougher time than usual, admitting that while his car is ‘really good’ with the grip having come up a lot, it is not comfortable to drive. Saying he needs to just make less mistakes, he was pleased that the team was doing so well with Jorn leading the way showing the pace of their car.

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