Balestri ups pace in Gubbio

He said yesterday evening before leaving the track he would go faster and that exactly what the defending champion Dario Balestri has done here this morning bettering his overnight TQ time by 3 seconds. The factory Team Magic/Novarossi driver said his car was good in the cooler conditions but traffic in the pitlane during his fuel stop cost him some time. Aiming to claim a hat trick of European titles on home soil, the Italian thinks it will be very difficult to improve in the final qualifier as the temperature starts to rise here in Gubbio.

Coming closest to Balestri’s provisional pole position time was Jerome Renaux who was just 1.7 seconds off. The Belgian driver is finding his Xray really easy to drive and very consistent over 7-minutes. One of the few front runners using the Stratus bodyshell, the Euro B finalist says he hopes the track is slower for the fourth qualifier and that he wouldn’t even mind some rain! Planning no changes to his NT1/Novarossi/Kronos combination he said he will try to again to maintain his form in the final round of heats.

‘Always third’ was Francesco Tironi’s reaction to setting the third fastest time for the round.  An improvement on the time that he set yesterday it keeps him third overall.  The factory Sirio driver said some sloppy driving over the opening three laps cost him a few tenths but overall his Mugen was working well.  Asked if he could take the challenge to Balestri the Italian replied ‘I think Dario will start the final on pole’.

One of the finds of the 2009 EFRA European Championship is most certainly Biagio Spataro.  The 15-year-old, who is running in one of the lower heats, has been quick all week and just produced a 26 lap run in 07:11.502 to put himself into the all important Top 4 who directly qualify for the Main Final.  Spataro lost around a second during his pitstop after spinning his JP powered Xray on fuel spilt in the pitlane but said fourth overall will do just fine.

After a terrible day yesterday Michael Salven finally produced a full run. Stripping gears in opening two qualifiers it was discovered last night that the crankshaft on his Mega ZX was bent. Fitting a new crankshaft, clutch and gearbox to his Serpent 733 the German was able to post the fifth fastest time despite the car shifting into second too early. Finding out he was in the unwanted fifth position, meaning a place in the Semi Final, the former two time European Champion said ‘We have to go faster’.

Dirk Wischnewski who held fourth overnight dropped to sixth despite improving his time by almost 2 seconds. The German was annoyed with himself saying his Xray was very good but he had messed up running off the track and losing around a second and a half. His Xray teammate Martin Hudy was also annoyed, but with Guiseppe D’angelo who ran in to him chunking his tyres forcing the Slovak driver to retire. D’angelo who drops from being second overnight to seventh also retired with his Reds Racing powered Mugen suffering traction roll.

Having been relieved to finally set a decent time, good enough to put him sixth, Madrid podium finisher Alessio Mazzeo’s Serpent was disqualified for the tank being too big.  The young Italian said he was very nervous during his run as he knew he needed to produce a good time but unfortunately it was all in vain and he will now have to do it all again in the last round of heats.

Drivers have one last chance to record a decent time but as proved by Balestri, qualifying 25th in 2005 and 26th in 2006, victory is still possible even if qualifying hasn’t gone your way.

Top 10 after round 3 of qualifying
1. Dario Balestri – Team Magic/NR – 26 laps in 07:09.413 (Q3)
2. Jerome Renaux – Xray/Novarossi – 26 laps in 07:11.161 (Q3)
3. Francesco Tironi – Mugen/Sirio – 26 laps in 07:11.328 (Q3)
4. Biagio Spataro – Xray/JP – 26 laps in 07:11.502 (Q3)
5. Michael Salven – Serpent/Mega – 26 laps in 07:11.594 (Q3)
6. Dirk Wischnewski – Xray/Novarossi – 26 laps in 07:12.733 (Q3)
7. Giuseppe D’angelo – Mugen/Reds – 26 laps in 07:12.978 (Q2)
8. Giorgio De Felici – Xray/Max – 26 laps in 07:13.326 (Q3)
9. Teemu Leino – Xray/Team Orion – 26 laps in 07:13.728 (Q3)
10.Kyle Branson – Serpent/Sirio – 26 laps in 07:14.866 (Q3)

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