D’angelo delivers TQ in penultimate qualifier

Genius Racing’s Alex D’angelo delivered a TQ run in the penultimate round of qualifying at the 1:8 GT World Championship and in doing so has put himself in a position to deny Hong Nor’s Toni Gruber from becoming the early Top Qualifier in Sydney.   Yet again it was an action packed 7-minutes, the first casualty being Andrea Catanzani whose Serpent suffered a mechanical and was out after just 4-laps.  Up front his team-mate Jeff Hamon was setting the pace but his engine was too lean and the Australian was forced to pit to have it retuned ending his effort.  Toni Gruber, hoping to wrap up the overall TQ with a round to spare, would get hit not once but twice by other cars, putting him on the back foot.  In a close fight at the top of the timing screens with his team-mate D’angelo, Bernard-Alain Arnaldi would put his car on its roof and sliding across the grass where it needed to be marshal.  All the while D’angelo was having a clean run on new tyres delivering the TQ by a margin of 2.4-seconds over Gruber with Q4 winner Natanaele Senesi completing the Top 3.  Again another good run from the second fastest heat by local offroad racer Lachlan Donnelly who posted the fourth fastest time for the round which moves him into 7th overall.

‘The car was simple amazing, the engine, the fuel consumption, it was incredible’, was how D’angle summed up the TQ run he has been flagging for some time.  The Italian, who got a P4 on used tyres a round earlier, continued, ‘I was on all new tyres that I saved from yesterday and this morning and I was able to manage all the front grip and have a clean run.’  Now in contention for the overall TQ, looking to the final qualifier he said, ‘we are on the right road and for the last quali I have another new set of tyres so I will try to make another super round.  With no mistakes and luck I think we can manage another TQ.  At the end we see where we are.’

Asked about his Q5, a frustrated Gruber replied, ‘I had two crashes with others guys, but what can we do, other than this everything was good’.  Setting the fastest lap of the round, the European 1:1o Nitro Touring Car Champion goes into the final round with a new set of tyres. After a strong day yesterday when he took the opening two rounds, Gruber is having a more challenging day today and is determined to wrap up qualifying as he started it.  He concluded, ‘I have new tyres, I just need luck.’

‘It was a safe run, P3 is good’, was how Senesi summed up his latest effort.  He continued, ‘I was slow at the beginning because my engine was a little lean so I had to let it breath at the end of the straight.  I let Alex go by and then tried to keep at the back of him to gain some seconds”.  Sitting third in the standings, the Italian looks safe to make Super Pole which he outlined at the end of Day 1 of qualifying was his goal.

With only one club race as previous GT race experience, 1:10 Offroad racer Donnelly said his spike in form over the last two qualifiers was thanks to an engine he got from IGT8 owner Paolo Morganti.   Signing up for the World Championship on the grounds it was only 50-minutes from his home, on the new engine he has as his disposal the 19-year-old said, ‘the horse power difference is massive’.  Given his lack of knowledge of the category he said they have been making progress every run and he believes there is still more to come.  Struggling with brakes, he will switch from carbon to steel pads for the final qualifier.