Hara tops ‘extra’ practice

1:8 Onroad debutant Atsushi Hara has topped the extra practice session that replaced the opening two rounds of qualifying following this morning’s tyre additive scandal. The Japanese ace, whose confidence is growing with every outing, was fastest from Italian’s Dario Balestri and Michele Romangnoli.

Third fastest overall in yesterday’s controlled practice, Hara said track conditions were not as good as yesterday but he was happy with his pace in comparison to the lap times set by his rivals.  Running a different OS engine in his Mugen, the former 1:8 Offroad World Champion said with the engine set a little leaner a 37 lap would have been possible and he is looking forward to qualifying which is now set to get underway tomorrow.

Fastest in controlled practice, Robert Pietsch said he suffered ‘brain interference’ resulting in an off that took the front left corner off his Mugen.  The European Champion and designer of the MRX-5 also found that the track was not as good as yesterday and said today’s windy conditions made driving more difficult as it caught the rear of bodyshell causing the car to get loose.

The only other driver to do a 37 lap run yesterday, Team Serpent factory driver Paolo Morganti tried a different Novarossi engine in his 966 but it wasn’t as good and he struggled for pace compounded by the rear sway bar coming off his car.  The American will now revert back to the same package he ran in CP2 for the morning’s opening qualifier.

Backing up his surprise CP1 topping pace 25-year-old Brazilian Flavio Elias posted another strong run with the fourth fastest time ahead of former 200mm World Champion Keisuke Fukuda and Serpent 966 designer Michael Salven.  19-year-old Takehiro Terauchi set the fastest lap of the ‘extra’ practice taking his Mugen around in a 16.058 on his way to the 8th fastest time behind fellow ZAC Project supported driver Sinya Shimazaki.

After a day that made headlines for all the wrong reasons hopefully tomorrow we can get on with the process of crowning the 18th 1:8 Onroad World Champion and get qualifying underway.  Our coverage, which has been made possible thanks to Shepherd, Matrix, Blitz and Serpent, continues in the morning when we will have a full round up of the opening qualifier.   Groups 7-13 run their two heats in the morning with the Groups 6-1 running in the afternoon.

‘Extra’ Practice Top 10
1. Atsushi Hara (JPN) – Mugen/OS Speed – 36L/10:02.245
2. Dario Balestri (ITA) – Capricorn/Novarossi – 36L/10:02.812
3. Michele Romagnoli – Shepherd/Novarossi – 36/10:05.688
4. Flavio Elias (BRA) – Mugen/Max – 36L/10:07.527
5. Keisuke Fukuda (JPN) – Mugen/Novarossi – 36L/10:08.448
6. Michael Salven (DE) – Serpent/Xceed – 36L/10:08.567
7. Sinya Shimazaki (JPN) – Mugen/Novarossi – 36L/10:08.813
8. Takehiro Terauchi (JPN) – Mugen/Novarossi – 36L/10:10.105
9. Nicola Marrone (ITA) – Serpent/Max – 36L/10:11.817
10.Meen Verjak (THA) – Mugen/Novarossi – 36L/10:16.924

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