Balestri crashes out of final qualifier but still Top Qualifier in Singapore

Infinity’s Dario Balestri is the Top Qualifier at the Singapore International Nitro Grand Prix despite crashing out of the final qualifier at the RCMC Marine Parade track with Naoto Matsukura going on to set the fastest time in Q4.  After a dominant start to the event that saw last year’s race winner take the opening two qualifiers, an issue for the Italian in Q3 yesterday saw Jesse Davis post the TQ run to put the Australian in with a chance of the overall TQ this morning.  Unfortunately for Davis, who ran out of fuel in the opening 2 qualifiers, engine issues in the final qualifier put an end to his challenge as well as any chance of being a Top 4 direct qualifier into the main.  The nature of the track and high temperatures mean the Semi Finals are an extra high risk as was highlighted in Q4 as many drivers had engines issues or made mistakes.  With Balestri looking comfortable to officially lay claim to pole position with a third TQ, the Italian would make an uncharacteristic mistake hitting the pit lane and launching his car off the track and into retirement with broken suspension.  This allowed Teemu Leino to set the pace but pushing hard to keep ahead of Matsukura he made a mistake handing the round to the Japanese driver who with a P2 from Q1 will start second on the grid.  Getting a second for the round ahead of Leino, Carmine Riola will start 3rd on the grid with Leino locking in the last of the direct spots into this evening’s 45-minute Grand Prix Main.

Reacting to his mistake with a laugh of disbelief as to what happened, Balestri said, ‘I jumped out of the pit.  Honestly I don’t know what happened, I just push and the car flew out of the track.  I think it was my mistake.’  No overall concerned about his TQ, looking to what all the drivers know will be a tough final, the 2-time World Champion said, ‘you need to find the right carburetion, you need to be really good with this.  It is going to be a maximum tough race.’  He continued, ‘We need to try keep everything alive.  It is a race all about management of the everything especially the engine.’  On tyre wear he said ‘it’s ok but we cannot make on one set so we will do just one change but have still need to manage the wear because of the high speed when the tyres start to become small.’

Summing up his TQ run after problems in Q2 and lacking power in Q3, Matsukura said, ‘It was only because Dario had a mistake and Teemu also a mistake’.  He continued, ‘My car feels very good but I just drove and the run was nothing special.  It is very difficult to get the engine tuning right for this track because of the high traction and the high speed and it a little bit lean the engine is already finished.  I just drove the car around to get to the end.’  A 3-time winner of the Singapore GP, he added, ‘In the practice for the final we will try one more time to get a good tuning but 45-minutes is going to be very difficult because we start with a big tyre which gets smaller and with the high traction and high speed keeping the engine right for this is very difficult.’

‘It was so so’, was how Riola described his final qualifier.  The Italian explained, ‘I had some radio problems.  I think I lost 2-times the feeling at the chicane and I think we lost around 2-seconds but we still get P2 and P3 overall.’  He added,  ‘The Semi Finals look really difficult here so better that we skipped the Semis.’  On the Grand Prix final he said, ‘You need to drive smooth and manage everything and every lap check the tune of the engine and change your driving style to keep the temperature down.’  On his radio issue, asked if he felt this was heat related, he replied, ‘Normally with Sanwa with humidity I always have a problem and here we have a lot of humidity but I don’t have a second radio so I just hope it doesn’t happen again.’

Summing his final qualifying effort, Leino said, ‘I saw Dario’s mistake and went into the lead, then after the refuelling it was pretty close with Naoto.’  The 49-year-old continued, ‘I don’t think about the gap because I hear nothing and then I just pushed a little bit too much in the chicane and had one mistake.  Out of the pits I also had a little bit of trouble and there was some seconds lost there.’  On the challenge of the final, the Finn, who is a regular of the race which celebrates its 20 anniversary this year, said, ‘I have never finished the final here.  This track is just hard and then with the temperature it is all about managing the car and engine through the race.  If you can finish you will finish high.’  He concluded, ‘My car is running good though so I will keep it the same for the final.’