‘Perfect’ qualifier for Pietsch
Robert Pietsch believes he has just driven the best qualifier of his racing career after the Mugen driver produced a 29/10:03.705 run to move into povisional pole for the World Championships here in Lostallo. The German ace, who took TQ honours at the Warm Up race back in June, said the run was faultless and his MRX-4X was superb. Despite the engine being slightly to rich on the bottom end in the second qualifier, the factory Novarossi driver feels it will be extremely hard to beat the time even in the expected cooler conditions tomorrow with the Warm Up TQ time being slower in temperatures 10 degrees lower than it is here now in Switzerland.
Fastest in the opening qualifier Lamberto Collari, who is running just one fuel stop, improved his time and described the run as better but drops to second. The defending champion said he will make some changes to the set-up of his Kyosho as he would like a little more steering. Alberto Picco’s switch away from a one stop fuel strategy worked well as he managed to jump up to third in the qualification ranking. The Italian will now stick to 2 stops as it removes the risk of running out of fuel with the end result the same in terms of time. The winner of the ‘Warm Up’ race, Picco was full of praise for his Picco/Mugen combination but criticised his own driving. Overdriving the car he feels he lost a number of seconds over the 10 minutes and will focus now on being more accurate in Q3.
Having run out of fuel in the opening qualifier Team Shepherd driver Oliver Mack bounced back in the second with the fourth fastest time. The German said getting a good tune on his Novarossi was again difficult. In the warm up he found the engine too rich and leaned it off but by the end of the run the engine was extremely lean.
Mark Green described his Serpent 966 as ‘really, really good’ and said he was able to stick with Pietsch until about 2 minutes in when his Novarossi went rich. The 2007 World’s Finalist said it was a real shame as the car is easily capable of running a Top 4 time. Tomorrow the British ace plans to lean his engine right off for what is expected to be the best chance for drivers to set their quickest times. Another good run from local ace Marco Muller saw his Shepherd complete the Top 6 followed closely by Italians Andrea Pirani and Andrea Cristiani.
2007 World Championship Top Qualifier Massimo Fantini finally broke into the Top 10 with his Serpent 966, stopping the clocks with the 9th fastest time. The Italian, who is the man behind Max Power engines, said he is still looking for a good set-up and that a repeat of his pole in Argentina was looking very difficult. Changes to the set-up will focus on giving his car more steering. Former World Champion Adrien Bertin competes the Top 10 for the opening day of qualifying.
Elsewhere Winternats Champion Paolo Morganti heads the US challenge lying 15th overnight. The Serpent driver is pleased with his day saying his aim coming here was to qualify in the Semis but will change his set-up for the morning in the hope of improving his corner speed. 2007 World’s podium finisher Chris Tosolini lies 19th just ahead of another US driver Josh Cyrul. Tosolini was looking good in his second heat until the inside of his front tyre came unglued effecting the handling of his Sirio powered Kyosho. For current 1:10 World Champion Daniele Ielasi a faulty steering servo was discovered to have been his problem yesterday and not the set-up of his Shepherd. Today the car was much better but trying for single fuel stops he failed to make it on both occasions and finds himself 29th, a position he joked was better than expected. Tomorrow he is confident of moving towards the sharp end of the field.
We are glad to report that Michael Salven’s mechanic was back at the track this evening. Bertram has nothing broken following the pitlane incident but his hand did require stitches. It looks unlikely he will be able to pit for the rest of the event which is a pretty big blow for Salven.
Top 10 Qualification Ranking after Round 2
1. Pietsch Robert (DE) – Mugen/Novarossi – 29/10:03.705
2. Collari Lamberto (IT) – Kyosho/Novarossi – 29/10:07.585
3. Picco Alberto (IT) – Mugen/Picco – 29/10:09.882
4. Mack Oliver (DE) – Shepherd/Novarossi – 29/10:11.551
5. Green Mark (GB) – Serpent/Novarossi – 29/10:11.602
6. Müller Marco (CH) – Shepherd/Novarossi – 29/10:12.972
7. Pirani Andrea (IT) – Mugen/Novarossi – 29/10:12.984
8. Cristiani Andrea (IT) – Serpent/Max – 29/10:13.540
9. Fantini Massimo (IT) – Serpent/Max – 29/10:14.484
10.Bertin Adrien (FR) – Kyosho/Team Orion – 29/10:15.029
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