Catanzani is GT Worlds Top Qualifier as sterling Mazzeo effort just comes up short
Serpent’s Andrea Catanzani is the Top Qualifier at the IFMAR 1:8 GT World Championships in Chile, qualifying coming to thrilling climax at the Club de Aeromodelos de Chile track after a sterling effort in the final qualifier by Raptor’s Alessio Mazzeo. After taking three of yesterday’s four qualifying rounds, Catanzani held the overnight TQ from Q1 winner Mazzeo who needed to TQ today’s two remaining rounds to deny his fellow Italian pole position for Friday’s 1-hour final. Rising to the challenge by ticking the first box and topping Q5, the 33-year now needed to not only TQ the sixth & final qualifier but also to better Catanzani’s Q4 time. With engine his sponsor Gimar fitting a new engine for Q6, Mazzeo earlier saying they had nothing to lose, he put together a brilliant drive and as the 7-minutes started to come to a close it looked like he was about to pull off the impressive feat, his projected time just ahead of Catanzani’s best. It wasn’t to be however, Mazzeo’s engine going lean right at the end and losing power, costing vital 1/10ths of a second. Still taking the TQ for the round and forcing the tiebreaker, unfortunately he was 6/10ths of second short with Catanzani, who has struggled today, securing the honour of Top Qualifier for the 3rd running of the GT World Championships 2-years on from when he announced the arrival of his talent on international stage at the GT Worlds in Sydney. Behind the fight for the TQ there was also a battle for the order of the other two direct spots in the final, Super Pole no longer a thing. It would be Natanaele Senesi who got the better of Alex D’Angelo concluding qualifying with his fastest run that gave him a P2. With it an all Italian Top 4, best of the rest at the end of qualifying in Santiago would be Brazilian WIRC driver Elias Flavio who will lead away one of the Semi Finals while Raptor driver Carli Lopez from Puerto Rico starts on pole in the other Semi.
Not overly joyed by his TQ given it was clear he struggled on Day 2 of qualifying, Catanzani said, ‘For sure I am happy about the TQ but yes I am not super happy about the car so we have to think about what change we need to make.’ The 20-year-old continued, ‘We tried a different engine in the last quali but we started quite a bit lean so we had to pit to tune it, so then the qualifying was finished for us. We continued so we could try the car as we changed something but it was not right so we will go back when we rebuild the car for tomorrow.’ Asked about car set-up for the longer final, he said, ‘its the same set-up that you use in the quali, you can us it in the final because there is no problem with tyre wear this race.’ On any potential gains in fuel strategy he said, ‘I think it is better to be safe because the race is so long. So here in these conditions it’s more easy because there is not so much consumption, so the strategy will be easy as you don’t have to change tyres.’
Understandably deflated having got so close to snatching the TQ from Catanzani, Mazzeo said, ‘It was super windy and the track was slower but I pushed harder and then bad luck in the last three laps because my engine became too lean and I lose power. So I lose the time to TQ.’ The friendly Italian continued, ‘Congrats to Andrea, Roberto and Marco because they deserve to be in this place and I am happy for him.’ While he may have lost the TQ battle, the former Nitro Touring Car World Championship podium finisher is game on for the final. Looking to the 1-hour encounter which due to bad weather concerns will run a day earlier (Friday) than originally scheduled he said, ‘for sure tomorrow we have to follow our dream, we will do it.’ On making any changes for the longer race he replied, ‘Nothing, just clean it with the air. There is no strategy, just push, it’s like a quali but just 1-hour long.’
Probably the happiest driver at the end of qualifying, Senesi summed up his P3 by saying, ‘At the end I am super happy because our goal is achieved, it was to be in the Top 4 so we are straight into the final.’ He continued, ‘The first two were faster, we already knew that but I think the strategy we had with the tyres was good so just one set up until the fifth round a new set for the sixth which allowed us to do P2. The car was super good, we ran 21.4, Alessio was 21.3, just a tenth off so I think for the long final we can have a good balance and I am confident for the race. Planning to just refresh the oils in his car, he said ‘compared to Australia where we had super high tyre wear so everybody was complaining about changing, here we are not going to make the tyre change because they last a lot and also on used tyres during the run they are pretty consistent. The only point in my opinion would be to not push to hard to stay at the top because then they go out of temperature and the car starts to get loose.’ Very happy with his Gimar engine, he added, ‘I know behind me Alex is struggling with run time, Alessio and Andrea are struggling in some cases but I can do one extra lap so I am going to push as much as possible at the beginning.’
Reacting to his P4 and direct progression to the final, 2023 Top Qualifier D’Angelo said, ‘this was always the focus so I am happy, of course you always want to start ahead but in a 1-hour final if you start first or last it’s the same.’ He continued, ‘Today we had nothing to lose so we used the last two rounds to try something different with the set-up. What we tried didn’t work good but we know how the car works with yesterday’s set-up so we can go for that. In the practice tomorrow we might try something else’. Asked about the final he said, ‘the strategy is going to be the same for everyone, the tyre wear is good so you can run 1-hour with no change unless of course your damage a rim or something.’ One area of caution he does have is regarding the engines saying, ‘to make the engine work for 1-hour will be hard because the straight is long and the grip now is high so the engine struggles. For 1-hour it will be tough on the engine.’