Another TQ run from Balestri in Florida
Dario Balestri has produced another TQ run at the 1:10 200mm World Championship in Florida. Having admitted himself to being surprised at taking the opening round of qualifying this morning, the Infinity driver once again topped the second of the 7-minute qualifiers by 2/10ths, this time round ahead of team-mate Andy Moore. Having been disqualified from Q1 after setting the fourth fastest time, Shoki Takahata would keep his time this time round to complete the Top 3. P2 in the first round, an early mistake put Naoto Matsukura out of contention while Top Seed Lamberto Collari continued to have engine issues only this time they meant he did not even take the start. For reigning champion Dominic Greiner it was to be another 4th for the round with improvements from Toni Gruber and Jilles Groskamp seeing them complete the Top 6.
‘Another good surprise’, was how Balestri described his second TQ run. The 1:8 World Champion continued, ‘honestly, the grip in the heat before was better. I think this set of tyres is more hard. In the warm-up I had to get my mechanic to adjust the camber because I had no steering. Anyway at the end it is another TQ run and we won it in the pit because we had a really fast stop’.
Reacting to his P2 Moore said, ‘Yeh it was alright. It was better than expected to be honest’. Running in the second fastest heat, the former Electric Touring Car World Champion added, ‘Naoto had a mistake at the beginning and a few others had issues but I kept it on the track. I had a big slide at the end that cost 2/10th and that was the difference in the end’. A former 200mm Worlds finalist, finishing 4th in Thailand in 2012, the British driver continued, ‘realistically I am not vying for the TQ but if I can keep running in the Top 6 I’m happy’. On his car he said, ‘It feels good and my engine is good and Trin did a super fast stop which really helped the result’.
Takahata described his run as ‘a safe run’ adding it was ‘important’ because of having already lost a round following his technical disqualification in Q1. Fixing the minimum gap between the two body openings, the Mugen driver left his car unchanged and plans run it again as is in the Day’s 3rd & final qualifier. Losing a little time at the end of the run as he got stuck behind Meen Vejrak, Takahata felt he is driving well within himself. Asked if he planned to push harder in the next one, his mechanic replied for him saying, ‘no he needs one more safe one’.
‘The car was better but I had a mistake at the end of the straight and lost half a second’, was how Greiner described his second qualifying effort. Impressively but not intentionally drifting the entire first corner in the mistake, the Serpent driver also lost time in a miscommunication from his pitman at the end. He said, ‘We thought it was my last lap so I launched the car at the line but for me it was not the finish and I lost 3/10ths’. Also feeling his engine was a little too rich and his gearbox was changing late, the German concluded, ‘at the end I was 8/10ths off Dario and that’s the time my errors lost. We will make it better the next one’.
2017 European Champion Gruber said, ‘so far so good. One more good run and then I can smile’. The WRC driver said, ‘In the first round I just made a safe run but could see the car was working well so I pushed a little more and was 2-seconds faster. For the next one I will try to make more consistent my laps to bring down the total time but all can happen and one mistake could mean you are outside the Top 10. I will leave he car the same’.
‘It slowly starts to improve’ was how Groskamp reaction to his first Top 6 run. The newly crowned Euro Nitro Series Champion added, ‘the car has been very nice all the time but I was just missing those few 1/10ths to be up there. It is so competitive this race and I still need to find another 1/10th’. Making changes to his car each time he has gone out on track, the former Electric Touring Car World Champion said, ‘I tried to copy my team-mates set-up but I had to go back to my own settings but slowly I am getting there and there is still a long way to go in the race’.
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