Collari fastest in Q4, Pietsch still TQ

Lamberto Collari was fastest in the fourth round of qualifying here at the 2009 IFMAR 1:8 Onroad World Championship but the time was only good enough to lift the defending World Champion up to third overall with Robert Pietsch still holding the TQ spot. Collari, whose off in Q3 was found to have been caused by a bad battery lead in his Kyosho, said the run was good but that track conditions were not as good as this morning. Second fastest for the round was Alberto Picco followed by Motonica’s Stefano Solaroli but both failed to improve on their Q3 times. Other than Collari the only other top driver to improve was Serpent team driver Andrea Cristiani but 15th is not a true indication of the Italian’s talents. Retiring from this morning’s qualifier with a faulty receiver, the Vice World Champion said his 966, which has been fitted with a new Max engine, is working much better today but feels he lost time trying to pass current European Champion Jernej Vuga during the second run.

Due to the higher track conditions current TQ holder Robert Pietsch decided to use the round to test his second factory Novarossi engine. The German said the engine, which has less running on it was a little rich but ran for over four minutes. Pulling up just after half way through the run the Mugen driver said he will revert back to his first engine for the penultimate qualifier which is scheduled for 10:30 in the morning and has the potential to see some very fast times set.

‘Its nice to be competitive again’ was how Team Shepherd driver Josh Cyrul summed up his second round despite stripping a gear six minutes in. Having switched to harder springs all round on his Velox he said the car had great pace despite the hotter conditions which don’t appear to be effecting him much as his rivals. Setting the fastest lap of Q4 with a 20.037, the American drops one place to sixth due to Collari’s improvement but plans no set-up changes for the morning when he is confident of moving back up the
order.

Having had a great Q3 Team Motonica may be without one of their star drivers for the rest of the event. Dario Balestri was found to have run an unmarked engine in Q4 and faces exclusion from the entire event. Race officials are deliberating over the matter with an announcement expected later this evening.

Elsewhere things appear to be getting worse for current 1:10 World Champion Daniele Ielasi.  The Italian is struggling to find a set-up that works on his Shepherd with his best run set in the last qualifier only good enough for 37th spot, one place ahead of European Champion Jernej Vuga.  Mugen driver Vuga said he can’t a good set-up for the current conditions and even tried that of Andrea Pirani but didn’t like the feeling it gave.  The big problem for the Slovenian driver is a lack of steering.

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