Senesi takes Q4 at GT Worlds

Natanaele Senesi became the third different driver to TQ a round of qualifying at the 1:8 GT World Championship, the Xray driver topping the fourth round on a hot morning in Sydney where the temperatures on Day 2 of qualifying are set to hit 33 degrees.   It was to be dramatic top heat that started with an early mistake from Q3 winner Andrea Catanzani, costing him over 2-seconds.  Next it was Jeff Hamon who was in trouble, the Serpent driver have brake issues for a third time of the event and he was out after 3-minutes.  Setting the fastest lap of the run as the only driver to run a 17-second lap, soon Catanzani was back in the hunt but he had Toni Gruber all over him, the Hong Nor driver having to lift on the straight so as not to run in the back of the Serpent.  With Catanzani opening to allow Gruber passed, shortly after the German would all on his own go off the track and across the grass losing over a second.  Catanzani looked like making it two TQ runs in a row but on the last lap he would run out of fuel with Senesi crossing the line to take it by 1.9-seconds from Gruber with the Genius pairing of Bernard-Alain Arnaldi and Alex D’angelo third & fourth ahead of Lachlan Donnelly who was running in the second fastest heat.

Overall Top Qualifier for the 1:8 GTe World Cup running alongside the World Championship, asked about his nitro TQ run, Senesi said, ‘I just tried to drive as safe as possible.  I was on new tyres in the back and old on the front so my goal was Top 3 as another good score would put me in Super Pole’.  He continued, ‘The hotter (the track) the better for me, it’s more grippy.  The car was super good and I was on a good run.  At the end I had lucky and could get the TQ.’

‘Just a stupid driver mistake, I can say no more’, was how Gruber summed up his moment during the qualifier.  Not entiring happy with his car he added, ‘we had a leak in the diff yesterday so we refilled it but we over filled it and it got too hot which made the car difficult to drive but it was the mistake that cost me the TQ run’.

Another to suffer a mistake was Arnaldi.  The French driver said his car was better but he had a spin that cost him 2-seconds.  Describing his car as ‘good but not perfect’, he feels ‘it is not possible to push without making 360 degrees’.  For the penultimate round he will ‘fine tune’ his set-up to try a get a better balance but he added this track is challenging for everyone.

D’angelo said, ‘I am happy with my qualifying because I was on all used tyres and I saw others were on new’.  Before the start I told my mechanic that we just drive and take no risk and see at the end were we are, so fourth is a good position’.   Looking to the final two qualifiers, the winner of this year’s Italian National GT Championship opener is feeling confident in the knowledge that he has two new sets of tyres at his disposal and hopes to capitalise on them and move himself up the qualifying ranking in which he currently sits 4th.

BREAKING NEWS – Catanzani penalty revoked

Andrea Catanzani’s 3-second penalty for track limits has been rescinded meaning the Serpent driver takes the TQ for the third round of qualifying at the 1:8 GT World Championship.   More than two & a half hours after the Italian had 3-seconds added to his time because it was too late in the heat to serve a drive through penalty for track limits, it was rescinded due to IFMAR rules only allowing track limits at pit entry/exit.  Jeff Hamon was credited with the TQ for the round when the penalty was imposed but now the top seed gets a P2 for the round as how they originally crossed the line in qualifying.

Hamon TQs Q3 after Catanzani penalised for track limits

Jeff Hamon has taken the TQ for the third round of qualifying at the 1:8 GT World Championship but only after a post race time penalty was applied to his Serpent team-mate Andrea Catanzani for track limits.  Having run out of fuel while on a TQ run in the opening qualifier this morning, and then suffering a flame out in Q2, Catanzani looked to bring the first day of qualifying in Sydney to a close by finally delivering a TQ run.  Given a warning during the qualifier about track limits, later in the heat the Italian was called to serve a drive through penalty but didn’t have time to serve it.  Crossing the line as the TQ, it initially looked like the result would stand but a protest was made and some time later he was informed he would have 3-seconds added to his time dropping him behind Hamon.  While his team argued that the track limits rule was nothing they had come across before, and was something more applicable to Formula 1, they had no grounds to appeal the penalty.  In all the drama it was top be a very good round for defending Champion Joern Neumann as the Sworkz driver posted the third fastest time ahead of Alex D’angelo and Natanaele Senesi.  Having TQ’d the first two rounds, Toni Gruber would get 6th for the round having opted to go with used tyres.

Summing up his Q3 as a ‘solid run’ not knowing yet it was to become a TQ run, Hamon said, ‘we still need to make improvements’.  On new tyres for the qualifier, he said ‘I am happy we made run time easily and I’m also happy Toni didn’t TQ.’  Trying to gather information on what his rivals are doing in terms of tyre strategy, the Australian said he might have to look at adapting what the Italian’s are doing by running a mixture of new rears and used fronts.

Clearly frustrated by the penalty, speaking before he had been informed of the decision, Catanzani was pleased to finally go the distance and still have a fast car.  The European Championship Top Qualifier said the track was not as fast as the first qualifier but running a different Gimar engine for Q3 the run time was now good although his mechanic Joaquin De Soto cautioned it was always going to be close to the limit here with fuel.  Looking to Day 2 of qualifying, the 18-year-old is confident he can fight for overall TQ over the remaining three rounds, each drivers best 3 from 6 to count.

Asked if he had finally found a competitive set-up after setting the third fastest time, Neumann replied, ‘We will see tomorrow.  We thought before it was good and then we struggled in the first two qualifiers.  Hopefully now it will stay good.’  Asked what he had done to find the improvement in form, the German said, ‘we made a lot of changes so I don’t know which one gave the biggest improvement’.  Adjusting the ackerman, the wheelbase of the car and the front diff, which combined gave him a more stable rear allowing him to push much harder, he said a manifold change had made his engine more aggressive which was also a positive for his driving style.

Describing his Q3 performance as ‘OK’ having opened the day with a P2 and P3, D’angelo said ‘when it is hot our car works a lot better, when the temperature is low we have less grip’.  Opting for new rear and used front tyres for the run, the Genius Racing driver said he has been managing his tyres so as to save them for tomorrow with the aim of gaining places in the final qualification ranking list.

Running at the top of the timing screen for much of the day’s final qualifier, Senesi said it was going good but he suffered super high tyre wear and towards the end of the 7-minutes he started to lose steering and that dropped him to 5th.  On for a good time in the opening qualifier he would run out of fuel but making a manifold change and adjusting his radio settings he said the run time was now good.  With a P4 in Q2, the Xray driver said he needs another good round and the goal now is on making it into Super Pole.

Always up against it on used tyres, selecting the best tyres from the two sets he used to TQ the opening two rounds, Gruber was happy with his day overall.  The Hong Nor driver said, ‘we saw in the final practice our pace is good and we managed to carry that into qualifying.  I learnt from Q1 and controlled myself in Q2.  I think now Q4 is an important one.’  The only driver to run 24-laps, the German has the advantage of the tie breaker but his intentions are not to need to call on that by delivering a third TQ run in the morning.

Gruber again in Q2 – Update

Hong Nor’s Toni Gruber made it two from two in qualifier at the 1:8 GT World Championship, the German heading home top seed Jeff Hamon.  Opting to run another set of new tyres for the second qualifier, Gruber was unable to match his opening 24-lap run reporting afterwards that the tyres felt different but also accepting track conditions may have changed.  On second run tyres, Serpent’s Hamon would finish over 4-second down on his rival with another good run from Genius Racing’s Alex D’angelo seeing him go third fastest from the Xray of Natanaele Senesi.  Bernard-Alain Arnaldi and Gabriele Paloschi completed the Top 6.  While drivers appeared to have a better handle on the 7-minute run time compared to Q1, unfortunately it was another disappointing round for No.3 seed Andrea Catanzani as he flamed out during the top heat.