Senesi takes Asia Nitro Party TQ honours

Natanaele Senesi has taken the TQ honours in 1:8 GT at the inaugural Asia Nitro Party race in China.  The Italian would go up against newly crowned World Champion Alessio Mazzeo and France’s Bernard-Alain Arnaldi as the fight to secure pole position & the only direct spot into the 45-minute Main went down to the fourth & final qualifier at the Hongyu GDC track.  With Mazzeo finding a new level of speed from his Raptor in Q4, he looked like getting the job done in style however with a minute & a half to run in the 6-minute heat his throttle servo would fail.  His second DNF, having had an engine issue in Q3, the Italian would end up qualifying 4th overall.  Despite running out off fuel three corners before the line, Senesi’s Raptor would take the round ahead of Arnaldi’s Genius who also was on the limit getting to the line and that is how they would complete the final ranking.  The biggest surprise of the day ‘s qualifying would be the performance of Hobbywing technical guru Salton Dong, the experienced electric racer steering Mazzeo’s spare World Championship car to P3 on his GT debut.

Summing up qualifying as ‘a super difficult day’, a timing issue in Q1 and a penalty in Q2 among his dramas, Senesi was happy to eventually secure the TQ honours, the race marking his switch from Xray to Raptor as the base car for his Senesi Motorsport conversation kits.  On his clash with fellow European Champion Arnaldi in Q2, which saw him get 5-seconds added to his time, he said, ‘For sure Arnaldi was a little bit faster so I let him go and then I go full throttle with no intentions of hitting him but we touched.  I waited 2-seconds but he was on his roof so I finished my lap and afterwards asked please give me a penalty because I know I was in the wrong.’  Suffering a problem with his fuel tank in Q3, which caused him to DNF, with a new tank and engine for the final showdown he said, ‘the last qualifier was good but Alessio was faster.  I didn’t want to push too much because I wanted to save the engine.  It was a little too rich, I didn’t want to lean it before the start.  In the end I made P1 because Arnaldi came short.’  Looking to the final, he said, ‘I think we will leave everything the same and just rebuild the car and make the engine a little bit more lean’.  With higher temperatures expected tomorrow, in the region of 23-degrees, he said he may have to try something different for this like higher diff oils in his practice session but added he found the track very strange today compared to yesterday when his car was super good.  Today however since the temperature changed a lot, it was super good in practice, then it started to lock in, then it was good again, then it was too much locked in so it was not very consistent.  We have many finals and cars on the track so we will have see how the track is.’

‘P2 is a good result considering I didn’t start the event good because the weather was too cold’, was how Arnaldi summed up his performance today.  The 2-time European GT Champion continued, ‘today was much better and the car is working good now.  Every run it was better & better although the last heat I did not have good steering so I didn’t have a good flow but we are looking good for tomorrow to have a big fight with Natan and Alessio.’  He added, ‘For me I prefer the longer run than the shorter run so I am looking forward to the finals.’

Looking very pleased with his P3 overall, asked how he out qualified his own team driver, who added to Hobbywing’s 2025 World Champion title haul, Dong said, ‘I finally learned to drive nitro.  I changed my driving style and the car feels really good.’  He continued ‘in the first two days I use my electric finger which can’t work because of the low temperature but I learned from Senesi.  He drove my car and I saw the car is good.  I also saw that his finger is more aggressive to keep the tyres warmer.’  Having never race GT before, asked if he was enjoying the experience he replied, ‘Yes, it very fun.  The guys can help me.  I can just drive and feel the fun.’  Asked how he will cope with racing a long final, he replied,’they have a 50+ (age group) final so I can practice in this and I hope I can fight for the podium.’  On strategy he said,’I need to ask what to do but basically my engine fuel consumption is lower because I drive more smooth.’

While finish 4th in the final ranking,  Mazzeo said, ‘I am happy because the last quali we found the speed.  We were super fast and I am happy about this because we found something for the car for the next races’.  Asked if speed had come from something small and a major change he replied, ‘It was a big set-up change, a big step forward.’  He continued, ‘we were in the lead immediately and I managed the gap because we were fighting for the overall TQ but we broke the servo, that’s the race.  Now we are the fastest car on the track so I am confident for tomorrow’s racing and for me what is important is to improve step by step the car.  For sure we are on a good way for the final.  The difference was 3/10ths a lap from before so we make a big step but we are also happy for Natanaele because it is his first race with our platform and he deserve the TQ for sure, his worked a lot for this.’  On the final, Mazzeo said, ‘it will be easy’ in terms of tyre wear and fuel consumption adding the decision on the winner with be made racing on the track and not in the pit strategy.

View our event image gallery here.