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Andrea Catanzani’s 3-second penalty for track limits has been rescinded meaning the Serpent driver takes the TQ for the third round of qualifying at the 1:8 GT World Championship.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added to his time because it was too late in the heat to serve a drive through penalty for track limits, it was rescinded due to IFMAR rules only allowing track limits at pit entry/exit.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.

Gruber TQ’s opening qualifier at GT Worlds

Having laid down his intentions with the fastest time in this morning’s final practice, Hong Nor’s Toni Gruber delivered a TQ run in the opening round of qualifying at the 1:8 GT World Championship in Sydney.  Despite run time for the 7-minute qualifiers a concern for everyone, the early pace was blistering and drivers would later pay.  Gruber pushed hard by Andrea Catanzani clearly managed the situation best as extra hot temperatures today added to the challenge and his work with engine tuner Daniele Ielasi clearly paying off.  A whole host of drivers came to a halt in the dying moments as they ran dry, the first of them being defending World Champion Joern Neumann.  Behind Gruber it would be Alex D’angelo who was second fastest as the Genius Racing team looked to have finally found their way.  Team-mate Bernard-Alain Arnaldi also had a strong Q1 securing P4 behind Top Seed Jeff Hamon who would suffer his second brakes issue of the event.

‘Now we learn from the first round, the high temperatures meant the consumption was more, we have to adapt as a driver to make the 7-minutes’, was Gruber reaction to taking the opening qualifier.  He continued, ‘ Catanzani was really fast.  I was thinking to push more to stay with him or to keep to my own style and save fuel.  He pushed too much and ran out of fuel.  My speed was good when I drive smooth like this so I think the others need to do something to make 7-minutes but will loose speed.  We are in a good position right now’.

D’angelo described his P2 as ‘not a bad start’ adding ‘it was a complete disaster yesterday’.  The Italian said, ‘We made a lot of set-up changes.  Our usual set-up is a lot different but today we find a good balance but it is still very tricky’.  Used to running a tyre combination where the rear tyre is a softer compound to the front, he described the rules here of running the same compound PMT handout tyre all round is ‘challenging’ adding it makes the car tricky in the corners but they are finally finding a way to deal with this.

Asked about his opening attempt, Hamon said, ‘I lost a brake pad and lost all brakes. I dialled up my dual rate until I ran out.  At that point I was going to pull out but I needed to see how run time was.  It’s close but not as bad as others.  Congrats to Toni.’   The Warm-up Race winner continued, ‘It is going to be tough at that pace, apart from Toni and what they are doing with Daniele, there is no chance (of making run time) at those lap times.  And the temperature is going to be even higher tomorrow.’

Summing up his P4, European GT Champion Arnaldi said it was ‘better for sure’.  The French driver continued, ‘I did a lot of work with my team-mate and we completely changed the car.  It’s better but not perfect but we are on a good way. With some fine tuning I hope we can make it better.’  Like his rivals when asked about run time his body language indicated it was borderline.

Hamon top seed as Gruber fastest in final practice

Serpent’s Jeff Hamon is the top seed for qualifying at the 1:8 GT World Championship in Australia but it was Hong Nor’s Toni Gruber who concluded practice with the fastest time for the fourth round.  With drivers best two point scores from the four rounds to count, Hamon, having topped the opening two rounds, will carry the No.1 in the top heat of qualifying.  With yesterday very much a Serpent stronghold with Gabriele Paloschi topping the third run as the manufacturer held the Top 3 overnight in seeding, Gruber this morning put in a blistering run setting a time of 54.504.  While some opted for new tyres to bolster their points tally and get a better heat for qualifying, behind Gruber Genius Racing’s Alex D’angelo had a good run to the second fastest time ahead of Serpent’s Andrea Catanzani.  While Hamon tried a different set-up, that clearly didn’t work, reigning World Champion Joern Neumann managed a competitive run taking his Sworkz to the fourth fastest time to end up 8th in the final seeding.

Commenting on his performance, Gruber said, ‘Actually it felt really slow’.  The German continued, ‘while I was feeling it was going to be slow the lap times were fast.  When you have a car that is easy to drive but the lap times are fast this is really good.’  Running used tyres, he said, ‘Now we have new tyres (for qualifying) so we will see’.  Asked about fuel consumption, as the emphasis changes from 3-laps to counting the full 7-minutes for qualifying, he said, ‘we have to check after that run.  We were a little too rich in the beginning of the run but we changed the manifold for better consumption and the engine feels good but we have to see what was left in the tank’.

‘A terrible run’, was how Hamon summed up the final practice.  The Australian explained, ‘I made an adjustment to the engine, it did not work.  I made an adjustment to the car, it also didn’t work.  But it was worth trying’.  With tyres a big topic of the event, this morning’s team manager meeting seeing IFMAR agree to permitting a tyre stop in the Main final due to wear concerns, in relation to the final practice Hamon added, ‘some sneaky competitors used new tyres that one’.  Asked about his car for qualifying, he said, ‘I’ll just go back to my previous set-up, some of the others in the team also tried what I did and had the same results so we’ll just revert back’.

Finishing up as the third seed for qualifying ahead of team mate Paloschi, Catanzani was quick to point out his final run was on old tyres adding ‘maybe other guys were on new tyres.’  Very happy with his P3 run, the 18-year-old added, ‘my car now is good, it’s fast.  I think we are really fast for qualifying.’

‘Much better this morning, it was good’, was how Neumann described his run.  Also running in the GTe World Cup that is running alongside the GT World Championships here at the John Grant International Raceway, he said, ‘I tried something on the electric car and it was good so I copied it on to the nitro car and it improved it a lot’.  Asked what the changes were he said, ‘we copied the toe in and made a change with the front diff.’  On tyres the German confirmed he was used tyres following it up with ‘did some people run on new?’