Leino holds overnight TQ position
Teemu Leino can return to his hotel tonight a happy man after putting his Xray in the overnight TQ position. The Flying Finn produced the fastest run of the day in the first of the day’s three qualifying heats and the nitro European Championship debutant was naturally pleased with his day if not slightly cautious about tomorrow, ‘I’m very happy, it was a good day for me but there are still two more days to go so we will see’.
Fastest man outright setting a new lap record today for the ARCA track was local star Oscar Cabezas. The young Serpent driver had his first trouble free run of the day in Round 3 producing a superb time for the conditions to go second on the time sheets just over one second off Leino. ‘I had a lot of problems in the morning, in the first heat on the first lap the engine cut because of the low temperature but the car was working very good. In the second heat the car rolled and hit the barrier in the warm up. For the third heat I was very nervous because I was last but I got a good result. Tomorrow is a big day for me.’
Alessio Mazzeo drops to third retiring from the final heat suffering from grip roll but the European 1:10 B Champion is confident that he can challenge for the TQ position in tomorrow mornings final qualifier when the track should be at its best.
Adrien Bertin continued his climb up the order after failing to finish the opening qualifier having run out of fuel. Despite the slower track in the final heat the Team Orion driver put in a strong run to move himself in that all important top 4 however the former World Champion believes tomorrow will be better, ‘I think the last shot will be tomorrow morning. I feel the traction coming up and I thought the last one was Ok I just ran the engine way too lean.’
Francesco Tironi failed to improve on his morning time and the Sirio team driver falls to 5th. Germany’s Michael Salven, who had a troubled first two heats, finally completed a run and it was good enough to put the Serpent driver into sixth place.
Others to improve their times in the final run were Martin Christensen, Darren Johnson and Dario Balestri who sit 7th, 14th and 17th fastest respectively overnight.
The general feeling among all the drivers in Madrid is that the times will tumble in the final qualifying heat tomorrow so it should be a very exciting if not tense atmosphere at the track in the morning.
Qualifying after Round 3 of 4
1. Teemu Leino – Xray – 18 laps in 5:07.684
2. Oscar Cabezas – Serpent – 18 laps in 5:08.895
3. Alessio Mazzeo – Serpent – 18 laps in 5:09.569
4. Adrien Bertin – Kyosho – 18 laps in 5:09.880
5. Francesco Tironi – Kyosho – 18 laps in 5:11.911
6. Michael Salven – Serpent – 18 laps in 5:11.996
7. Martin Christensen – Xray – 18 laps in 5:12.200
8. Martin Hudy – Xray – 18 laps in 5:12.270
9. Niki Duina – Xray – 18 laps in 5:12.276
10.Helge Johannessen – Xray – 18 laps in 5:12.328
11.Jilles Groskamp – Xray – 18 laps in 5:12.680
12.Mark Gilliland – Xray – 18 laps in 5:12.697
13.Andreas Myrberg – Xray – 18 laps in 5:12.707
14.Darren Johnson – Team Magic – 18 laps in 5:13.363
15.Rick Vrielijnck – Mugen – 18 laps in 5:13.701
16.Walti Beat – Xray – 18 laps in 5:13.720
17.Dario Balestri – Team Magic – 18 laps in 5:13.844
18.Basile Concialdi – Xray – 18 laps in 5:13.934
19.Teemu Saarinen – Mugen- 18 laps in 5:13.949
20.Giuseppe D’Angelo – Mugen – 18 laps in 5:14.003
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