Catanzani just pipped by Hamon in first seeding round
Serpent’s Andrea Catanzani looked like giving us a new name at the top of the timing sheets at 1:8 GT World Championship as seeding got underway in Australia but with just seconds to go team-mate Jeff Hamon somehow managed to recover from a problematic start to the run to snatch it from the young Italian. A run that would see a number of drivers in the top heat experience issues, Catanzani was the first driver to break into the 54-seconds for his 3-consecutive laps and looking to save tyres was already down off the rostrum just after half way through the 10-minutes run with his time looking strong enough to hold. Having set the pace yesterday, Hamon was also off the driver stand but for different reasons as he suffered brake problems. Considering abandoning the run, with just enough time to make an attempt at 3-laps after fixing his breaks the Aussie pulled it off pipping Catanzani by 0.094 of a second. Having finished out yesterday’s controlled practice with some promising runs, Natanaele Senesi carried that form into seeding opening his account with a P3 for the first of the four rounds ahead of Paolo Morganti and Toni Gruber.
Asked about his issues that saw him spend over 3-minutes in the pits once his car had been marshalled, Hamon explained, ‘My brakes were not correct so I fixed the problem but I over fixed it and the brakes locked on’. Coming off the driver standing and fixing the problem himself, he said, ‘the plan was to do 2-minutes warm-up, 3-laps and come in so when I had the problem I was just going to abandon it but I had just enough time for a go at it and a pretty clear track because a lot of the others had come in already to save tyres. It paid off’. With tyres a big talking point yesterday, Hamon said the decision to call an team-managers meeting this morning and agree all racers will get a fifth set of the PMT handout tyres was ‘way better’. He added, ‘It is good for the event as drivers now need to worry less about tyre management and go after times’.
Sixth fastest in controlled practice, European Championship Top Qualifier Catanzani summed up the first seeding practice with ‘now its good’. He continued, ‘the car is a little difficult to drive but it fast as well’. Asked about coming in early, he said this was to save tyres and explaining he plans to do today’s three seeding rounds on the one set of tyres. Looking to the second run, he said while ‘fast is good’ he will make a small down stop change to his Gimar powered Serpent to try make it ‘a little easier to drive’.
Pleased with his first seeding attempt, drivers’ two best point scores from the four rounds determining the heats for qualifying, Senesi described his Xray as ‘better’ after adjusting the diffs. Going to a lower oil he said the biggest change was to come from the change of bodyshell he made. Having switched between the Blitz P5 and P6 yesterday, he ran the TSP Racing Zonda GT today calling it ‘a huge difference’. He explained, ‘it makes the car more stable in the rear and on the sweeper its more stable in the steering’. Highlighting the difference in him going from 18.5 to 18.2 lap times, he feels his 3rd for the round could have been better as he had one mistake on his 3-laps.
‘Not bad for an old man’, was how Morganti summed up his P4 time. The iGT8 owner continued, ‘It was a decent run but I lost a little balance and the car now over rotates. It was like driving a modified electric, you need to be so precise with the throttle’. Running new tyres, he said ‘re-run tyres’ after the head cycle fade and he will make a small change for that and to make the car a little easier to drive.
Like Hamon, another driver to have car issues was Gruber. A loose screw in his steering linkage lost the German a lot of warm-up time which in turn lead to his engine not being set right for the run. Running rich, this then caused a late shift to second gear but the Hong Nor driver was happy the screw came loose so early when he was only warming up the car saying if it had happened when he was up to speed it could have been a lot worse and his car would have for sure been in the fence. Despite his engine set-up being off, he said to be only 4/10th off Hamon he is feeling positive for the next one.