Pietsch controlling the pace

The final controlled practice is underway here in Lostallo and with plenty of time to kill between runs we caught up with one of the pre-event favourites Robert Pietsch.  Setting the pace in the first of today’s 10 minute runs from fellow Mugen driver Andrea Pirani, the German ace is very happy with the performance of his Novarossi powered MRX-4X. Featuring new harder plastics and a new shock mounting position on the rear wishbones for this event, the Warm Up race Top Qualifier says overall the car is working really well with only very slight oversteer keeping him away from a perfect set-up.

The Bumod Grand Prix winner is, like most drivers, running a two stop strategy over the 10 minutes. Managing to get five minutes from his Novarossi engine in an earlier practice he said there was no advantage to be gained as the cautious driving style to make the time meant a 1/2 second drop off in his lap times. Commenting on tyres Piestch said the wear is pretty high but that is not a problem for him as his set-up works best on larger tyres.

Asked who he felt has stood out during practice the Mugen designer said there are a lot of drivers with the potential to be strong here and until qualifying gets underway we will not get a true picture. He did single out a couple of drivers including defending Champion Lamberto Collari but added that the 8 time World Champion appears to be inconsistent being very fast one run and then off the pace in the next. Others to impress him include Serpent pairing Michael Salven & Tadahiko Sahashi and Shepherd factory driver Oliver Mack.

Interestingly Pietsch said prior to the Worlds he played a lot of sports to try and build up his fitness for this long event.  Drivers have already had five days of running with another five still remaining and that is sure to take its toll. The long periods between each driver’s run, over 5 hours today, is also a mental challenge for the drivers and good fitness level is sure to help.

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