Balestri is World Champs Top Qualifier

Dario Balestri is the Top Qualifier of the seventh running of the Nitro Touring Car World Championships.  The Capricorn driver claimed his first World Championship pole position with a third TQ run in the penultimate round of qualifying at Miniautodromo Internazionale M.Rosati.  After a tough start to Day 2 of qualifying in Gubbio, Balestri took control for the second half of the day as he topped the rescheduled Q2 concluding heat backing that up shortly afterwards with another perfect performance to put the overall TQ beyond the reach of his rivals.  Despite conditions being cooler for Q5, which was run later in the day due to the rescheduling of the timetable following yesterday’s rain, the Italian was able to see off Team Shepherd’s Simon Kurzbuch with Mugen’s Takaaki Shimo completing the Top 3.  For Q3 topping Alessio Mazzeo, a spin at the end of the straight would end his quest for the overall TQ while for surprise Q4 pace setter Syoki Takahata the round would result in a P11.

‘Whoo, that was super stress’, was Balestri’s reaction, the pressure release of successfully completing stage one of his Worlds campaign clearly evident. The former European champion of both 1:10 and 1:8 Nitro but for who a World title has eluded him, he said the TQ was the result of ‘a lot, a lot of hard work.  Maybe too much, ask my girlfriend’.  Having suffered with the rear end of his Tesla powered LAB CO3 bottoming out over the last three laps of the previous qualifier he said he adjusted the rear springs to raise the rear of the car and the change made it ‘perfect’ for Q5 which would be 1/10th faster than previous fastest TQ time.  Winner of the Warm-up Race held in June, Balestri said, ‘I have to thank Massimo (Fantini) and Patrizio (Rossi) for the work they have made to give me the engines and car’.  With the sixth & final round of qualifying set to run in the morning, when asked what his plan is for it he replied, ‘I need to think about what to do’.

‘I gave everything for the last one to try to TQ one round’, said Kurzbuch.  He continued, ‘but I am still super happy with 2nd’.  Holding third place in the overnight ranking, the Swiss ace said, ‘we should be good for Super Pole so we will try something for that in Q6 to be ready for that.  Calling it the ‘the last chance’, Super Pole is new to the World Championships this year and gives the four drivers qualifying from 2nd through to 5th the chance to shoot is out for a second direct qualifying position in the 1-hour title deciding Main rather than having to contest a Semi final. Each of the drivers will individually get six laps of the track with the driver posting the fastest lap getting the Super Pole pass to the final.

Having went out of Q4 when he collected his crashed team-mate Robert Pietsch, breaking the front suspension and then having to run his Q2 heat half way through Q5, Shimo summed his evening up as ‘very busy’.  The Japanese onroad nitro stalwart, would make a number of changes to his OS powered MTX6 but felt the car was still ‘only ok’ adding it ‘needs more steering’.  ‘Consistent not fast’, he will use the final qualifier to test for the final as he is secure in a Semi Final position. Pietsch would take his example to P7 for the penultimate round to sit fifth in the qualification ranking.

Ending his best result in Q5, Bruno Coelho said of the qualifier, ‘I drove on the limit all the time’.  The only driver from the reigning World Champion manufacturer currently in a Semi Final position, the Xray driver said of his Max powered NT1 ‘its a little slow compared to other guys’.  Feeling the car is ‘not perfect like before’, after his crash with Kurzbuch in Q3 he said the car was completely different and it is still ‘not perfect like before’.  Despite this he was happy to be so close especially after having to avoided a crashed car towards the end of the qualifier that lost him 1/10th and a Top 3 for the round.  Unfortunately Alexander Hagberg’s hopes of things turning around in qualifying haven’t quite been realised and the defending World Champion finds himself 33rd with one qualifier to go.

Posting the 5th fastest time, Dominic Greiner said, ‘we tried to make the rear more stable but made it too stable and now we had oversteer’.  Top Qualifier at the last Worlds Championship two years ago, the Serpent driver said, ‘Its super close’ but conceded, ‘Dario was the best today and he deserves to be TQ’.  Currently holding P4 in the qualification ranking, he said his focus for tomorrow morning’s Q6 is to stay in the Super Pole position and the plan is to ‘put the set-up from before the rain’ back on his Novarossi powered 748.

Completing the Top 6 once again as he did in Q4, Jilles Groskamp said this time the result was down to his actually pace rather others crashing out.  The Team Infinity driver said switching to an early practice set-up had reduced his speed deficit saying, ‘we are not so far from Dario now’. Planning to leave his car unchanged for the final qualifier, the former Top Qualifier wanted to try improve on his lowest point he is counting in his three results.  With the race the debut for the new manufacturer’s first prototype of a touring car, Groskamp said ‘our aim for the race was to get a car in the Semi and now we already have three which is really good for the team’.  Having got a P4 in Q4, team-mate Jesse Davis would end the day with a P9 after he ran out of fuel on the last lap.

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Q2 Update – second TQ run for Balestri

With the top heat of drivers finally getting to run their second qualifier it is Dario Balestri who is the first driver to double up at the seventh running of the Nitro Touring Car World Championships.  With rain bringing a halt to the second round of qualifying yesterday, just as the top heat was about to go on track, after first planning to run the qualifier during Q4 it was moved to Q5 in a hope of bringing more equal track conditions.  In the end 9 of the 10 drivers would better the provisional TQ pace set by Kyle Branson in the second fastest heat, today’s track proving faster.   Setting a new fastest time of the four rounds run so far, Balestri would be 7/10ths faster than Serpent’s Alessio Mazzeo and his Capricorn team-mate Luca Redaelli.  Simon Kurzbuch, Dominic Greiner and Tadahiko Sahashi would complete the Top 6.  Commenting on the run having had a shock issue in the Q3 and the victim of a Robert Pietsch error in Q4, Balestri said, ‘finally another clean run again’.

Ending the round 9th, his best run so far, Branson who is a team-mate to Balestri said, ‘for sure the conditions were different (for the top heat) but it is still my best run’.  The British driver whose next best time is a P12 in Q4, added, ‘I am not doing great at the minute, it’s hard today with the wind’.  A Semi Finalist at the 2012 World Champions in Bangkok, he concluded, ‘I could do with two more Top 10s to get into the Semis’.

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Mazzeo TQs third qualifier at WC

Alessio Mazzeo has TQ’d the third round of qualifying at the Nitro Touring Car World Championship.  After a delayed start to the second day of qualifying as the rain that halted Q2 continued overnight in Italy, the Serpent driver was fastest in the slower track conditions ahead of Robert Pietsch and team-mate Tadahiko Sahashi.  Having taken the opening round of qualifying yesterday, Dario Balestri would manage only the 7th fastest time, as he was hampered by a shock issue on his Capricorn.  Again Bruno Coelho would show strong running on a TQ pace like in Q1 but this time rather than a mistake of his own the Xray driver would crash into the Shepherd of Simon Kurzbuch which spun in front of him in the windy conditions.

I’m really happy because the conditions are very had hard.  There is a lot of wind and this is not good for the car especially under braking’, was Mazzeo’s reaction to his first ever TQ run at a World Championships.  With the moment made more special for the 24-year-old by the fact his mother & brother were here to watch the run, he said the pressure of the occasion lead to his final laps not being perfect.  Still fastest by almost 7/10th of a second, the former European Champion said, ‘For the first 5-laps I took it easy but once I saw the car was OK and had a good feeling for the condition I started to push’. With his next run to be the running of Q2, the round halted by rain yesterday just as the top heat started their engines, he said the track conditions will be the same as Q3 which means they will be a lot slower that the current TQ time for the round which is current held by Kyle Branson.  Commenting on the International Jury decision, he said ‘it is impossible to make the best choice for al drivers so I respect their decision’.  He added, ‘120 drivers raced so it is not good to change that they loose that run either, I will try to push for a good time but for sure it will be slower’.

Pietsch had the opposite view to Mazzeo on the running of their Q2 heat saying, ‘It’s totally unfair, the track is 3-seconds slower’.  The German added, ‘You can’t compare the conditions, it’s the wrong decision’.  On his MTX6 in Q3, the Mugen designer said, ‘the car had a little oversteer and I had to drive careful not to crash it’.  To cure this he will ‘change (his) rear diff for the next one’.

Behind the Picco powered Serpent of Sahashi, Francesco Tironi would prove the surprise of Q3.  Having not been on the radar in practice and 15th in Q1, the Infinity driver described Day 2 of qualifying as ‘much better today’.  The Italian said his prototype touring car from the manufacturer newcomer was quite good yesterday but suffered too much push’.  Making the front of the car 2mm narrow for today, the former World Championship podium finisher said they are now working on caster adjustments saying ‘the car is very sensitive to caster change’.  Having got to complete his Q2 as he is running in the fourth fastest heat, for Q4 he said they will adjust more the caster ‘to find the limit’.

Posting the 5th fastest time Dominic Greiner wasn’t pleased with his car.  The Serpent driver said, ‘the track changed a lot. I had no feeling for the car and it was very difficult to drive’.  Planning to change the car for the next one, he said a softer set-up should work better for today’s low traction conditions.  On the running of Q2, the German said it is ‘super stupid, the track is never the same as yesterday’ adding the qualifier will be ‘a run to test the car’.

Completing the Top 6 Luca Redaelli said he made a front shock change to his Capricorn in anticipation of the conditions but he still struggled suffering with oversteer.  Planning to go back to his original shock set-up, he said now that he is getting over the nerves of contesting his first Worlds he also plans to ‘push more’.  Team-mate Balestri, who was 5/100ths slower over the 5-minutes said he ‘knew immediately something was wrong (with the car), with his mechanic suspecting it was to do with a bad shock which he added ‘we must check’.

Commenting on his incident with Kurzbuch, Coelho said, ‘it was a little difficult because of the wind but the car was perfect.  I was running behind Simon and then he spun in front of me and we crashed. That was the end of the qualifier for me’.  Continuing the rest of the run he would get P18.  Kurzbuch said, ‘I am really sorry for Bruno.  I lost the rear and touched him’.  the 1:8 World Champion continued, ‘I think it was the wind because the car was ok through there all the other laps’.

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UPDATE
In an attempt to obtain more equal track conditions the International Jury has decided to move the running of Heat 13 Q3 to late in the day during the fifth round of qualifying.

Rain brings halt to opening day of quali at WC

Rain has brought a halt to the opening day of qualifying at the Nitro Touring Car World Championships, a decision finally made that no more acton will take place today in Gubbio.  Just as the top heat started their engines for Q2 forecast rain arrived just 10-minute too early with the Top 10 seeded drivers not even making it out on to the track.  An initial heavy shower was followed by more and heavy rain with thunder & lightning thrown into the mix.  The plan now to resume with the third round of qualifying tomorrow and then review track conditions with a view to running Heat 13 of Q2 with Round 4 so as the entire round doesn’t need to scrapped.  In Q2, as it stands it was Kyle Branson that holds the fastest time.  Running in the second fastest group, the Capricorn driver was quickest from fellow British driver Andy Moore, the pair separated by just 1/1000th of a second. As it stands the overnight TQ is held by Capricorn Dario Balestri who TQ’d the opening qualifier from Simon Kurzbuch and Robert Pietsch.

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.

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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.

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