Leino first to double in qualifying in Bangkok

12-years ago he was the Top Qualifier when Thailand hosted the World Championships for the first time and now this morning as the country hosts the 1:10 Nitro’s biggest race for a third time, Infinity driver Teemu Leino has kicked off Day 2 of qualifying as the first driver to deliver a second TQ run and move in on pole for Saturday’s final.  With Day 1 of qualifying seeing a different driver at the top each round it was the Finn who closed yesterday’s action by topping Q3 and this morning he has pick back up where he left off to top Q4 from the Capricorn of Toni Gruber who opened qualifying at the 10th running of the World Championship with the fastest time.  Overall it was a good round for Italian manufacturer Capricorn, a huge improvement from 2012 World Champion Meen Vejrak would see the Thai driver get a P3 for the round ahead of Q2 winner Dario Balestri and Swede Viktor Wilck.

Summing up his second TQ run, it being slightly slower than his Q3 time, Leino said, ‘I had the one mistake but still got the run by 2/10th so it OK.  I had a 1-second spin on the straight so I could have gone faster without that’.  On the mistake he explain, ‘It was just a spin on the sweeper, I don’t know why maybe I hit a bump or something I don’t know.’  Looking to the penultimate round of qualifier when he could lock in the overall TQ for Saturday’s 1-hour World title decider he said, ‘We’ll just keep everything the same and try to make one more.  The speed is good, all is good.’

Finishing 0.268 of a second off Leino, Gruber said, ‘For me the feeling was good, we just lost the TQ run now in the first & third lap.  I made 15.8 laps.’  Asked if he had particular issues on those laps he replied, ‘They were just slow laps, there was no traffic, it was just the wrong lines and it was a little slower, P2 is still really good.’  Running the second fastest heat asked if he felt this was in anyway hampering his qualifying being unable to gauge his actually pace against his main rivals who are all in the top heat he said, ‘For sure if you have the same pace as the other guys then you have no traffic normally but here now in this run I had completely no traffic so it was perfect for me.’  On his set-up the German plans to go back a little with the caster for the increased grip the track gets over the day.

Taking his World Title at the other of Bangkok’s famous tracks RC Addict, home to the famous annual TITC, Vejrak was happy to finally find himself in the mix at these Worlds.  He explained, ‘After yesterday, I had a lot of problems, I just tried to keep today clean and get a run with no mistakes.  I was getting a little bit faster each lap but I had one lap in which I had a spin and this cost me a TQ run.  It was almost a 16-second lap and that was the difference to the TQ.’  Still happy to come away with P3, he said, ‘Now I am back in the game and have a chance to win again’.  Asked about his Day 1 problems he said, ‘many small things but causing big problems like trust bearing break before the start of one heat.  But today we have made a good start and now I have good points to make a fight.’

Asked how his Q4 had gone Balestri replied, ‘there was a little bit traffic and maybe my tyres were too small in the end, the car was too loose in the end.’  Finishing 1.8-second down on his team-mate Leino at the end of the 7-miute qualifier, the reigning European Champion added, ‘the start was ok but then they just got too low so we need to think what to do for the next one.’

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Balestri just edges out Leino to take Q2 in Bangkok

Dario Balestri has taken the second round of qualifying at the 1:10 Nitro World Championship after just edging out Infinity team-mate Teemu Leino in the closing laps of the 7-minute encounter.  After both himself and Leino DNF’d the opening qualifier, both drivers needed to get their first points on the board.  With Toni Gruber, who took everyone by surprise with his TQ in Round 1, having a slower Q2, and second fastest man Jilles Groskamp unable to start after suffering an engine failure in the warm-up for his second quali run, it was Leino who lead out the top heat.  However, hitting traffic at the end of the run as Balestri set his fastest lap on his penultimate lap it was the Italian who took it by 13/100ths of a second from the Finn.  Behind the Europeans Australia’s Jessie Davis bettered his Q1 P6 with the third fastest time with Francesco Tironi again in the mix at the front after his opening P3 effort.  While Gruber would set the 6th fastest time for Q2 the Capricorn driver would have his time deleted as his rear wing was deemed to be too high in post tech inspection.

‘It was a clean a run, I am not sure the fastest run but we got good points’, was how Balestri described his TQ run.  The 2018 World Championship Top Qualifier in Miami added, ‘I was driving safe I would say because everyone is on the limit with the flip and even in the second part of the qualification the clutch was on the limit’.  Removing he worked on removing his car’s engine to check the clutch he said, You need to not only focus on your driving style but also focus on the complete package, the engine, clutch, everything.  It is a real challenge.’

‘I had traffic the last three laps that’s why I lost it’ was Leino reaction after Q2.  He continued, ‘I also had traffic after my refueling but at he end with the white car I lost the most time.  I also had one mistake when I was on two wheels for a long time.’   On his car he said, ‘It is good but really hard, you turn and get on two wheels.  But if you take off the steering it is slower, so it’s really hard.’  After his Q1 DNF he concluded, ‘I need two more finish runs and then it’s OK.’

Asked about his Top 3 run, Davis replied, ‘Yeah it was alright.  The first one was a good one too but I had one flip and without this I was TQ pace so I didn’t change the car, kept going and just tried to get one in the bag.  I didn’t drive particularly good that one but got the points.  The car is feeling pretty good and pretty stable so we’ll just leave it as it is for now and try & get some more points in this evening, we need one more to be safe.  Tomorrow then maybe we will try some set-up changes.’  In these conditions it is really difficult, you will see every round I reckon someone else TQ so there will be 6 different round TQs.  Just who can keep it on the track longest with the fastest pace.’

Reacting to his Q2 performance before finding out about his disqualification, Gruber said, ‘with the temperatures coming up we feel more grip and it was more difficult to drive, it was nearly critical to flip so that’s why I had to drive more easier and you see that in the laps times’.  Running in the second fastest heat after his struggles in seeding he added, ‘I also had problems in traffic so in the end I am still happy with 6th place.’

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Video – Seeding Practice

Check out this raw & loud video footage from the final round of seeding practice at the 2024 IFMAR 1:10 Nitro World Championship in Bangkok, Thailand.  A decade since the indoor Huge RC Circuit last hosted the World Championship for nitro touring car, this is one of the most unique & challenging tracks racers will face with the echoing engine noise on a different level!!