Mazzeo tops opening GT Worlds qualifier in chilly Chile

Raptor’s Alessio Mazzeo has taken the opening qualifier at the IFMAR 1:8 GT World Championships in Santiago, Chile, drivers at the 3rd running of the championships experiencing chilly conditions at the Club de Aeromodelos de Chile track.  Having topped yesterday’s seeding practice, Mazzeo was able to maintain his form as the driver to beat despite temperatures today being 10-degrees cooler than the previous days of practice.  The only driver to manage 20-laps over the first of the six 7-minute runs, the large circuit with its blue infield proving a big hit with drivers, Mazzeo’s closet challenger would be 2023 Sydney Podium finisher Andrea Catanzani – that was once the Serpent driver had a post tech disqualification revoked for failing the rear wing height inspection when it was discovered the measurement was incorrectly taken.  2.5 seconds off Catanzani, Capricorn’s Alex D’angelo completed the Top 3 ahead of Natanaele Senesi who posted the fastest lap of Q1 with Puerto Rico’s Carli Lopez recording a P5 ahead of IGT8’s Diego Morganti.  With IFMAR referee Javier Garcia summing up the CACH facility best when he called it ‘A Disneyland for RC’, unfortunately it looks like GT’s opportunity to shine on its stage could be dampened by the weather which is set to turn bad going into the weekend.  With that in mind, today drivers face a busy schedule of 4-rounds of qualifying with the final two rounds scheduled for tomorrow as IFMAR look to beat the weather in that particular off track race.  Based off that revised schedule, the new 1:8 GT World Champion, as unfortunately Hong Nor’s Toni Gruber made a late decision not to travel to Chile and defend his title, is set to be now crowned on Friday.

Well wrapped up in his Raptor winter jacket, Mazzeo reacted to his TQ run by saying, ‘the car worked good like yesterday even though today the track had less grip because it is super cold, like 10-degrees less compared to yesterday.  So there was a big question how the car would work but it was good.’  Running a new set of tyres for the opening qualifier, the Italian said, ‘I’m not sure it was the right choice’ explaining that the first few laps slick tyre’s mould line means the full tyre surface isn’t working.  As a positive however he thinks he should have the best tyre possible now for Q2 that this set is fully broken in.  Asked about changes for Q2, the former 1:10 Nitro Touring Car World Championship podium finisher, replied, ‘We leave everything the same.  My car is better for the warmer conditions so I hope it will become warmer’.  While that was the case over the previous days, teams pitting with containers needing to switch the heating in the morning to air condition by midday, the foggy conditions that created drivers this morning do not appear to be clearing.  On the CACH track, Mazzeo called it, ‘One of my favourite tracks, also the location and the facilities’.  The 33-year-old also congratulated the organisers of these Worlds on the their choice of controlled tyres, saying the Sweep’s D-SPEC GT 40 tyre are ‘perfect for this class’.  The Gimar engines factory driver also gave a thumbs for choice of controlled fuel, which is supplied by Italy’s Energy Fuel.

Initially disqualified for his rear wing being too high, something the 20-year-old was at loss to explain when he was informed given the same wing passed pre-Tech yesterday, Catanzani was relieved to have his P2 count after much deliberation and to & fro’ing to the tech room.  In the end in it transpired that the blocks the cars are placed on where to far apart and the reading had been taken from the front tapered section of his Serpent’s chassis plate causing the front to sit lower and the rear higher making it not inline with the height of the roof of the body.  On the run itself, the recently crowned Italian GT National Champion said, ‘It was not easy because today is like new condition because it has never been cold like this so the car was not really easy to drive.  Also the driver was not good because my fingers were freezing.’  For the next qualifier, he said, ‘we have to check if we can change something on the car to be easy to drive.’

Joining Capricorn for 2025 from Genius Racing, with whom he was Top Qualifier at the previous World Championship,  D’angelo explain, ‘We were on completely used tyres which we did four rounds on yesterday and while the car was good we suffered with making the tyre work in the first 2-minutes.’  He continued, ‘After that we were level on pace with Catanzani, maybe Mazzeo is a bit faster, but let’s see what we can do with fresher tyre in Q2.’  Referring to the cold, he said, ‘In this condition the grip is not good at all cause yesterday everybody went a lot faster and also the humidity is really high and I think if you have a good used set it is good but my set was too old.  Also yesterday I hit a curb so the rim was also slightly broken.’  On his car set-up, he said the only change they made for today was to adjust the rear toe.  Describing the track layout as ‘really cool’, the Italian said he had concerns before driving it that the straight was too long for GT but since driving it he was happen to be proven wrong saying ‘it fine for the GT class.’

Reacting to his first qualifying effort and how his Xray based Senesi Motorsport S21GT ran, Senesi said, ‘It was a little bit slippery in the beginning because the temperate is lower so I think my rear diff was too high in the oil viscosity so it took a lot of time to get up to temperature.’  He continued, ‘The mid to the end of the run was good and I was able to set the fastest lap of the heat, so the car was there, we just lost a few seconds at the beginning so for the next round for sure we will go lower with the diff and try to be there with the pace from the start.’  On the weather conditions he explained, ‘Usually during the morning it is like 10-degrees hotter but now it is very cold, and during the afternoon it goes to about 25-27 degrees so today is sure much colder and you need to find small changes to make the car perfect.’   Another to opt to start qualifying with a new set of tyres he said, ‘Considering I was on new tyres, which in my opinion are not fastest, as is the case in Touring Car, because you are not able to use the full surface.  Asked how he is enjoying the track, the 2024 European GT Champion said, ‘It’s a huge track but I really like it and I think with the compromise they made with the tyres & track it is very good because these tyres you are able to run more than one round and have the car always consistent which is a big plus and I am super happy for that.’