Balestri takes opening qualifier at WC

Dario Balestri has TQ’d the opening round of qualifying at the Nitro Touring Car World Championships.  The top seed took the first of the 6 scheduled qualifiers after a super close battle over the five minutes with Bruno Coelho, a last lap mistake leaving the latter with the 7th fastest time.  While Balestri was to cut it ultra close in terms of his run time, his Tesla engine cutting as soon as he crossed the finish line, the Capricorn driver was to take the 5-minute qualifier ahead of Simon Kurzbuch by 2/10ths of a second.  One second off the TQ pace, Robert Pietsch would complete the Top 3 followed by the Serpents of Dominic Greiner, Alessio Mazzeo and Mark Green.

A much cooler day than yesterday’s controlled practice with rain forecast for late afternoon, Balestri himself couldn’t hold back on smiling about his opening performance.  Summing up the run, the Warm-up Race winner said they were ‘not perfect conditions’ adding ‘if it was hot maybe (it would have been) more easy’. Despite feeling his LAB CO3 is better in hotter conditions the Italian said ‘the car is still good only now others are a little closer (to his pace)’.  With his timing on the runtime worthy of an award in terms of perfect timing, Baletri admitted it ‘was very close’ as he took a screwdriver to the carb of the Tesla engine.  Looking to Q2, the cloud cover ever increasing he said he had no plans to make any changes.  Team-mate Luca Radaelli, one of the stars of practice, would have issues with Takaaki Shimo in Q1 and end up 9th.  Having passed the struggling Mugen driver, the Italian twice got hit by the Japanese driver with the Capricorn going into a half spin as a result.

‘Back in the race’ was 1:8 World Champion Kurzbuch’s reaction to his P2 run.  The Shepherd driver continued,’ the strategy was to put in a good safe round so it’s a good start to qualifying and now we can attack’.   Really happy with his Novarossi powered Velox V10, he said the only issue over the run was having to run behind Mazzeo.  Commenting on this he said , ‘I understand it is always shit to have to open for a driver as you lose time but maybe if I had got by him I could have got the TQ.  Anyway I am still really happy’.  With his car ‘very stable and consistent’ in the cooler conditions he said his engine was also ‘perfect’ so he would go into Q2 without any changes.

Top Qualifier at the 2010 World Championship in Texas, Pietsch described his opening performance as ‘a good start’.  Describing his Picco powered MTX6 as ‘very good’, he said catching Mugen team-mate Shimo, who was the second seed for qualifying, cost him a little time.  ‘Shimo had an issue and I passed him but he was running pretty close behind me which ruined my flow a bit’. Posting the fastest lap of the top heat,  the former 1:8 World Champion plans to ‘keep it the same the next one’.

‘Super close’ was Greiner’s reaction after the heat adding ‘my driving was not good’.  Finishing 1.4-seconds off the TQ pace, the 2014 Top Qualifier & podium finisher said his Novarossi powered 748, ‘felt ok but the engine was a bit rich but in the end I think my driving was the biggest thing’.  Looking to Q2 he said ‘these are the conditions the car likes so I don’t need to change anything’.

Mazzeo said of his P5 ‘we are happy but also disappointed because we can do better’.  The former European Champion would have two mistakes, the second a result of Coelho venting his frustration over a last lap error.  He said, ‘I lost my concentration on the last lap after Bruno’s reaction’.  In terms of his Gimar powered 748 he said ‘the car ok’ adding ‘it was not perfect for the temperature being cooler’.

‘Against these professional guys I am happy with that, it was pretty much my limit’, was how class veteran Green summed up Q1.  The British driver said ‘it was a good first run’ with ‘no issues’ over the 5-minutes adding ‘any time I came up on traffic they crashed out of my way which was helpful’.

‘A stupid mistake’, was how Coelho described his last lap error.  The Portuguese star said, ‘everyone below was shouting last lap so I went for it but gave too much throttle in the fast chicane, lost the rear and flipped’.  The reigning European Champion was very happy with his NT1, saying ‘the car was very good. I was first all the time fighting with Dario, I just made a rookie mistake’.  Team-mate & reigning World Champion Alexander Hagberg would open his title defence with the 25th fastest time, the Swede clearly still not finding his way at the Gubbio track.

Heading the challenge of class newcomers Infinity in Q1, Andy Moore would post the 8th fastest time with Jesse Davis completing the Top 10.  Moore described the qualifier as ‘a pretty good start’ adding he put ‘everything back to the best points from practice’.  Admitting he ‘drove a careful round as (he) knew there was an ok time to be had’, he said changing also to his best engine for the run it was ‘a tiny bit rich but safe’.   Hitting 18-laps on the 5-minute flat mark, he said he did one more lap no problem in terms of fuel so he ‘can push harder the next one’ as his run time seems to be good.

View complete event results here.

View the event image gallery here.

Redaelli fastest in hotter mid day conditions

With a noticeable rise in track temperature due to the midday sun meaning little chance of the days opening practice times been beaten, the 9th & 10th rounds of free practice at the 1:10 Nitro Touring Car World championships was used by many as an opportunity to focus on engine run times.  Over the two rounds it would be Italian Capricorn driver Luca Redaelli would would set the fastest three consecutive laps from the Serpent of Alessio Mazzeo with Alessio Agostinelli making it an all Italian Top 3 in the hotter conditions.  With the temperature rise Redaelli’s time was almost 7/10th off the current fastest 3-laps of Simon Kurzbuch which was set in FP7 this morning.  Best non Italian for the two rounds would be Dominic Greiner, the Serpent driver fourth fastest having posted a P3 time in FP10, just 0.003 quicker than Kurzbuch’s Shepherd.

Putting his improved pace down to the hotter conditions playing to the strengths of his Capricorn’s set-up as the did yesterday, Redaelli was pleased with his pace adding ‘everyone will have to qualify in these hot conditions so I’m very happy and it was interesting to see others are now not so fast’.  Happy to leave his LAB C03 unchanged and now instead focus on the run time from his Tesla engines.  Fastest overall Capricorn driver in second with a time set last night in FP6, Dario Balestri would be P6 in FP10 with the Italian very content with his programme for the large number of practice runs drivers get.  Using FP10 to test used tyres that he feels would be where the car would be at 20-minutes into a race, he said the chassis was a little low and touching the track but the run was good in terms of gathering information on what he needs to do for the finals.

Having felt earlier that his 748 was missing something for the cooler than expected conditions, Mazzeo said ‘the car was now getting better as it is warmer’.  He continued, ‘For a driver the car is never perfect I think we are good and overall very fast’.  Planning ‘a little change in the steering’ for the penultimate round of free practice this evening he said the main focus on the run will be to gauge the run time of his Gimar engine in preparation for the 5-minute qualifiers.

Topping the times for FP9, Agostinelli said improvements to his Capricorn had given him a better car.  While the time was slower than his FP7 time by over 3/10th, the 23-year-old for whom Gubbio is his local track, said a lower rear and high front roll centre had given the car more steering as well as more rear traction.  Also adjusting the front caster and changing to a harder shock spring this contributed to the car feeling ‘safer through the fast corners’.  Running Novarossi engines, he will change this for his next run to check ‘all (his) engines are good for 5-minutes’.

For FP10 Greiner ‘changed to a better engine’ but the Novarossi unit was set ‘a bit too rich’.  Also making a change to the rear diff on his 748 he said it had made it ‘difficult to drive’ and for the next run he will change to oil half way between what he just ran and what he ran earlier.  Managing a P3 for the round with both these issues he said with a better engine setting it could have been possible to be fastest which he was happy about given ‘it is hot now’.

Also making an engine change from this morning, Kurzbuch said the Novarossi unit was ‘not perfect’ due to the tuning but running it again in FP10 the 5-minute ‘run time was easy’.  Having also changed his set-up from that which he ran this morning reverting back to the set-up for FP10 he said it was good to know he has a car that is good for both hot and cold conditions.

Having struggled with the set-up they arrived in Italy with, Japanese brother team Tadahiko and Yuya Sahashi are making contrasting progress.  According to Serpent designer Michael Salven, his drivers opted to take ‘baby steps’ in moving away from their own set-ups but have finally reached a point that is ‘OK for Tadahiko’.  With language a barrier for the non English speaking drivers, Salven said Edu Picco has been a brilliant help in working with the drivers and somehow replaying information. While  Tadahiko managed the 6th fastest time of the two session with a P2 in FP2, his fastest 3-laps of the event so far, when his brother copied the set-up it didn’t work for him.  Salven said ‘maybe Yuya can’t drive (the set-up) or there is some issue with the car.’

Bruno Coelho would post the 7th fastest time of the two middle of the day practice rounds.  The Xray driver posted the third quickest time in FP3 but after they ‘changed some stuff’ for FP10 his NT1 ‘was not so good’.  Set to go back to his early set-up and then try going a different direction with the set-up, he said his latest run was still useful as they made a 5-minute test for his Max engine which he said was ‘ok with this one’.  Overall the Portuguese driver, who has been the sensation of rc racing over the last 2-years adapting to any class he has contested, said, ‘overall we are not so far from the top and its just about small details’.  He added ‘the track is changing all the time, the warmer it gets the better for us’.

While Robert Pietsch is the lead Mugen in the overall timing with the third fastest time, it was Japanese team-mate Shimo Takaaki who was the best MTX6 over FP9 & 10.  Describing his car as ‘very easy and consistent’ around the track which he said is ‘a very good layout’, he said he needs to make ‘little improvements to make (the car) a little faster’.  Happy with his OS engines’ performance around this power track, he said while his car doesn’t feel much different to drive as the conditions change over the day the change in times is ‘big’ and he ‘now must think what changes to make’ to reduce the difference.

View the event image gallery here.