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.

View complete event results here.

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