Gruber catches World by surprise with opening TQ run
Toni Gruber caught the world by surprise this morning after the Capricorn driver TQ’d the opening round of qualifying at the 1:10 Nitro World Championship in Bangkok, Thailand. Having struggled in yesterday’s seeding, ending up only 18th and in the second fastest heat, a very deflated Gruber surprised even himself with his 7-minute effort in the first of the six scheduled rounds of qualifier. Having been so far off the pace in seeding, Gruber’s performance would also catch out Jilles Groskamp. Topping the fastest heat from Infinity team-mate Francesco Tironi, Groskamp admitted afterwards he thought he had TQ’s the round and it wasn’t until he looked up the times afterwards he realised Gruber’s impressive turn around in form. As the Top Seed for qualifying reigning World Champion Tadahiko Sahashi was running the Top 3 but his car came to a stop after running out of fuel. 1:8 World Champion Dario Balestri also had a rough start to Day 1 of qualifying traction rolling and then suffering a flame out. Topping the final seeding round yesterday, Teemu Leino also had a flame out.
With the mood in the Gruber camp at an all time low yesterday, even a normally upbeat and smily Daniele Ielasi was down as a result of his driver’s lack of pace, the 1:8 GT World Champion was somewhat at a loss to explain his TQ run. Asked if he had something extra special for breakfast this morning, the German replied, ‘to be honest I make nothing special, I just drive. We made some little adjustments to the car compared to yesterday evening and we hoped it would work a little better than yesterday but we didn’t think it would work so good that I could be on top now. It’s a real surprise.’ Asking if his TQ run, which was 7/10ths faster than Groskamp’s time, was a major confidence boost, Gruber agreed but aired caution by adding, ‘It is important to stay calm and not overthink things, drive, and stay relaxed.’ Asked about changes to his car for his next run, he replied laughing, ‘definitely not, we stay the same.’ Asked how his car felt on the TQ run he said, ‘It feels slow and easy to drive but when heard my lap times at 15.3 it was a real surprise.’
One of RC Racing truly good guys, reacting to his P2, Groskamp said, ‘It was a shame Toni was faster but we just didn’t think about him. I was first thinking yeah I got the TQ but then OK. But no it is good that Toni is up there now, for the race it is good, for everybody, so we need to push more. Of course it is a surprise because for four days he was nowhere and then bang he is fastest. Off the 5-days of practice, the first two days we only did single laps and I was actually fastest, and then after we got 3-laps and it was still good for controlled practice I just wanted to focus on the 7-minutes and take it easy with a smooth car. I think that now showed today, my car was safe all 7-minutes.’ I really wanted to get a clean run the first round just to get my mind straight and don’t get the pressure for the upcoming runs. It was a shame I didn’t know the time Toni ran so really the last few minutes I took it super easy and also our pit stop so I lost half a second in the pit stop to Toni. The problem is if you flip here most of the time the car breaks or tweaks and then you are completely starting over again in the next run and something could be still bent, the car is so hard for the car with the steel barriers but my car was fast and drivable for 7-minutes.’
Pleased with his opening effort Tironi said, ‘All the week the car works well, the balance was good from the beginning. So for the first one I just tried to take no risk and finish the heat with a good performance, so I am happy and confident for the next one’. Asked if there is potential to push more in Q2, the hugely experienced Italian and 2012 Worlds podium finisher replied, ‘For sure I can try to push more by myself but I am not sure that this also mean that the performance will be better but I do have more I can do.’ On car changes for the second round, he said, ‘we are just thinking if we start with new or old tyres and we will adjust a little the gearbox but the I don’t touch anything else.’
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