Balestri sets pace in 3rd controlled practice

Dario Balestri has set the pace in the third round of controlled practice at the World Championships in Gubbio, the Italian heading a Capricorn 1-2 from team-mate Luca Redaelli. The third different driver to top the time sheets today, Balestri took full advantage of the hot conditions as the morning’s pace setter Dominic Greiner struggled with the rising temperature. Star of yesterday’s free practice, Simon Kurzbuch would complete the Top 3 for a strong points haul, the heat seeding for qualifying being determined by each drivers best two points finishes over the four controlled practice rounds.

‘These are the same conditions as last race we did and all is perfect’, was Balestri’s reaction to topping the round.  The former Euro Nitro Series Champion continued, ‘We knew we have a good car for these conditions’.  Running Capricorn’s own brand Tesla engines, he added, ‘the engines are also better because we tested a lot for this’.  With the end of practice now in sight, some drivers having conducted 22 practice session, for the final controlled practice Balestri will ‘change nothing’ concluding ‘I hope for more hot runs’.

Despite a first lap mistake that chunked his rear right tyre and broke the left rear body post, Redaelli was only 0.012 off Balestri over the 3-laps.  Joking ‘I’m am always near to first position’, he said even after his first lap drama the LAB CO3 was ‘still good’. Having made a shock change to try reduce the performance drop caused by tyre wear over the run he said the change was ‘good’. With Capricorn boss Patrizio Rossi looking over the car after the run, the 25-year-old said based on his advise they will make some tweaks to the drive train to help reduce operating temperatures within the car.

‘Had good pace for the hot conditions’ was reigning 1:8 World Champion’s Kurzbuch reaction to his P3 time.  The Shepherd driver said for 3-laps his Velox V10 was ‘perfect’ but they need to work on consistency for 5-minutes.  Changing shock oil and the rear downstops for the round the Swiss driver said this got him the steering he was looking for but maybe it was too much as the car had become a bit edgy to drive.  Looking to make changes to make the car more stable in the rear he said with this it should give him the consistency he needs for qualifying.  Also pleased with his Novarossi engine in the hot conditions he will change over to his qualifying engine for the final practice in preparation for tomorrow’s opening qualifier.

‘Improving every run’ was Robert Pietsch’s reaction to getting P4 in CP3.  Running the radio tray in his MTX5 ‘loose’, this was to gave the Mugen designer a little more steering.  Experiencing some issues with the bump in the fast sweeper which was causing the car to ‘step out sometimes’, he will adjust the toe-in for the final practice to try eliminate this.  Having topped the previous session, Mugen team-mate Takaaki Shimo would manage only a P13 for the round.

While his run would end slightly early as a result of a stripped gear caused by a bearing failure on the gearbox shaft, Alessio Mazzeo would set the fifth fastest time.  The Serpent driver said prior to his problem his 748 was ‘very fast’ going on to describe the set-up as ‘almost perfect’.  Team-mate Greiner would end up P7, the German saying, ‘we have less steering in this temperature so we will try something to find steering for the next one’.  While expecting the temperatures to still be high for the final practice, he added, ‘today is the hottest day according to the forecast and tomorrow & Thursday are showing cooler so it (the loss of steering in the heat) is no problem’.

Completing the Top 6, Bruno Coelho said his Xray was ‘OK’ but he ‘didn’t get three clean laps’.  Using the early part of the run to tune his Max engine he would make a mistake on the third lap of his first proper attempt at a time resulting in a broken tyre.  Looking to the final practice the Portuguese ace said he would make ‘no changes’ and instead ‘just drive it now’.  Asked about his car for a 5-minute run he replied, ‘we are ok’ then pausing before continuing ‘well I hope so’.  Also making the Top 10 for the round would be Serpent team-mates Mark Green & Tadahiko Sahashi in P8 & 9 behind Greiner with Capricorn’s Kyle Branson 10th.

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Shimo fastest in CP2 in Gubbio

Factory Mugen driver Takaaki Shimo was fastest in the second round of control practice at the Nitro Touring Car World Championships in Italy. As expected the round would produce slower times than the morning’s opening round with the Japanese driver fastest from Luca Redaelli.  With CP1 pace setter Dominic Greiner doing an engine change and struggling to get a good tune on it leaving him with a P8 in the hotter conditions, Alessio Mazzeo would be the quickest Serpent completing the Top 3 ahead of Dario Balestri.

With the track around 3/10th of a second slower over 3-consecutive laps, Takaaki was happy to the top the round only 1/10 off his opening morning time.  Describing his MTX6 as feeling the same as it did in the morning despite the temperature rise, the multiple Japanese national champion was pleased with this fact.  Only making a rear toe in adjustment to the car to try and find speed through the last hairpin of the track he said the effect of the change was only ‘so so’.  Looking to the penultimate round of controlled practice, the factory OS driver will use the hottest period of the day to swap out his qualifying engine and ‘test (his) finals engine’.

While happy with his 3-lap pace, Redaelli was a little concerned over his drop off in pace over the final minute as his tyre diameter reduced.  With a new clutch solving the issues he suffered at the end of the first round, for the third round he will try a different shock set-up to see if this improves the consistency of the car over the 8 minutes of track time.  The Capricorn driver added, ‘I don’t want to change too much as the car is very good’.  4/100th off his team-mate Redaelli, Balestri had little to report after the round saying ‘all ok’ and for the next one he will test a different diff in the LAB CO3.

Making a complete change of set-up to his MTX6, Mugen’s Robert Pietsch would post the 5th fastest time.  The former World Championship Top Qualifier said the changes ‘seem to be really good’. Asked if the changing track conditions contributed to the improvement, the German replied that the new set-up was better overall.   ‘Not rolling as much as before’ and ‘no strange movements’ from the car which meant he ‘had to be careful’ now he can ‘push much more’.  While much happier with the car he was responsible for designing, he said there is ‘one small thing’ he wants to try for the next round as a fine tune to the new set-up.

‘Pretty good’ was how Mark Green summed up his run to the 6th fastest time.  The British driver said, ‘my car seems more competitive to the other guys in the heat’, adding ‘I don’t know if that’s good or bad but with most qualifiers in the heat it should be good’.  Running XRD engines in the back of his Serpent, the multiple British National Champion said he was ‘able to squeeze 5-minutes out of it’ so ‘overall things are looking good for qualifying’.  Behind Green would be Serpent team-mate Tadahiko Sahashi, followed by Greiner.  For defending champions Xray it is still Bruno Coelho who leads their challenge with P9 for the round followed by the Shepherd of reigning 1:8 World Champion Simon Kurzbuch, the Top 10 times cover by less the 4/10th of a second.

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Greiner tops 1st controlled practice

Dominic Greiner picked up where he left off yesterday to top the first round of controlled practice at the Nitro Touring Car World Championships in Gubbio, Italy, this morning.  The Serpent driver set the fastest 3-consecutive laps with an almost identical time to that which saw him top free practice last night.  Just 0.009 slower this morning, he was fastest from Dario Balestri with Takaaki Shimo completing the Top 3.

‘The car awesome’ was Geiner’s reaction to topping what is widely predicted will be the fastest track conditions of the four controlled practices that make up today’s scheduled.  The German said with his 748 working so well he ‘(doesn’t) know what to change’ continuing, ‘so I will leave the same for the next one’.  Having fitted a new conrod to his Novarossi engine after his issues yesterday he said the engine ran without any issues even though they ran it ‘a bit too lean’.  Pleased with both his car and engine, adding ‘run time is no problem’, the 2014 Worlds Top Qualifier’s only complaint was with himself saying, ‘my driving was not as good as yesterday so I will try to improve that’.

Just over a 1/10th off Greiner’s pace, Balestri said he tried a different pipe on his Tesla engine ‘just to test’ and it was ‘not so good for the engine’.  Set to revert back to his previous pipe, the Warm-up Race winner said ‘the car was good so all is ok’.

Removing the aero disks from his Mugen, Shimo was happier with his car this morning.  Without the carbon disks, the Japanese driver said his MTX6 had better initial steering.  While the overall performance of the car is improved he said the hairpin before the sweeper onto the main straight is now a problem area as he is ‘very slow’ in that one corner and he ‘need(s) to improve’ the car for CP2.

Impressing yesterday when the track was at its hottest, Luca Redaelli would post the fourth fastest time.  The Capricorn drivers said, ‘I did what I hoped to do, it was better than my Top 10 target so I am super happy’.  Only changing back to his ‘good’ Tesla engine for the first controlled practice he would not complete the full 8-minutes due to a clutch issue.  Towards the end of the round the Italian said the clutch was sticking, causing the car to run on in corner.  Planning to fit a new clutch for CP2 he said they will leave everything else unchanged.

Posting the fifth fastest time, 2013 1:8 World Champion Tadahiko Sahashi put his improved pace down to a better damper setting.  Going for a harder shock package on his Picco powered Serpent, he said this gave the 748 more rear traction.  Looking to get further rear traction from the car he will go even harder with the shocks for CP2.  The Japanese driver will also change to a different engine ‘just to test’.

Completing the Top 6, Alessio Mazzeo made ‘little changes’ to his Serpent but ‘didn’t like it’.  With his Gimar powered 748 ‘less stable on power than yesterday’, the Warm-up Race podium finisher will go in a different direction with his set-up for CP2.  It was a good start to controlled practice for Serpent with Toni Gruber and Mark Green making it five 748s in the Top 10.

With Jilles Groskamp having engine issues, it was Jesse Davis who was fastest of class newcomer Team Infinity.  The Australian took his prototype to the 7th fastest time improving his pace considerably from free practice in which he was only 26th fastest.  The reigning Aussie National Champion, he said his car was ‘much better today’ after he reverted back to the set-up he was running 2 days ago.  After ‘trying stupid shit’ on the new car while ‘trying to figure out what to do’ he said he has ended up back where he started which is a ‘pretty good base set-up’.  Planning now to ‘just fine tune’ that set-up he said the problem is that ‘the track is going to change a lot’ due to the temperature going up.

Posting the 8th fastest time ahead of fellow German Toni Gruber, Robert Pietsch ‘tried something’ that ‘wasn’t good’.  Finding the rear of his car loose in the colder conditions yesterday, the Mugen designer made the change to cure this but with ‘the track different today’ he ended up with understeer.  Describing the run as ‘solid’,  he will ‘try a completely different set-up’ for CP2 saying it might be ‘a lucky punch’ and lead to them finding something new in terms of set-up ideas.

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