Leino ‘Top Qualifier’ at ENS season opener

Teemu Leino continued his impressive return to 1:10 onroad nitro racing, the factory HB driver securing the overall TQ honours this evening at the opening round of the all new Euro Nitro Series in Melzo, Italy.  Having topped practice and the opening round of qualifying yesterday, the Finn was not to have it all his own way as Capricorn’s Dario Balestri took Q2 & 3 setting the stage for a head to head in the fourth & final round of qualifying. However when it counted most the World Championship Top Qualifier delivered an all important TQ run in Q4, his Q1 fastest time giving him the tie break over Balestri to secure the R10’s second international race pole position.

Having not raced the R10 since November 2012, when it made its Worlds debut, Leino was happy to be so competitive on his return to competitive action adding it was particularly rewarding to beat the drivers from the country that invented nitro racing on their soil.  In terms of his set-up the former European electric touring car champion said the car, the same one he ran at the Worlds, was hard to drive and this was far from ideal for tomorrow’s 45-minute final. Suffering from understeer yesterday he said today the problem was a lack of rear traction and although they made set-up changes every run they didn’t manage to cure it.  With a practice session for the A-Finalists tomorrow he said they, the car’s designer Takashi Miyashita his mechanic this weekend, needed to figure out something to try in the hope that they can have a less difficult car for the long race.  Running Novarossi engines in the car for the first time, he was very complimentary of these saying they ‘feel so good’ adding that the run time is also ‘very good’.  Asked who he expected his main rivals to be in the final he joked ‘all the Italians’ but looking down the grid he said apart from Balestri he expects Eric Dankel and Francesco Tironi to be in the mix.

Balestri said he messed up the final qualifier making a change to his front shocks that didn’t work.  The multiple former European Champion also said he had a mismatched set of rear tyres which made the car difficult to drive.  Posting the 9th fastest lap for the round, he still managed to post the fastest lap of the round.  Feeling he had a better car yesterday, looking ahead to the final he said going back to his set-up of Q3 it should give him a good car for the final.  Describing Leino as ‘one of the best in the world’, he said over 45-minutes anything could happen but as its the home track of Tironi he expects the Shepherd driver be a serious contender.

Set to start the final 3rd on the grid, Tironi said ‘for sure’ he has the advantage of track knowledge for the final but added that having switched only recently to Shepherd he does not have so much experience of the Velox V10 over a long distance. Setting the third fastest time, having been P2 in Q1 & 2, he said he lost rear traction after 3-minutes and he is not sure why but planning to go up in his diffs for the final he thinks the car should be fine.

Losing out on third position on tie break with Tironi, Capricorn’s Eric Dankel will start fourth.  Posting the second fastest time in Q4, he said for a 45-minute race the starting position would make little difference but based on his car’s performance in the final two qualifiers he is very confident for tomorrow.  Describing it as both easy to drive and fast he said with all the drivers so close on pace it was going to be a long race but with good mileage from his Maxima engine he is well positioned for the final.

Running out of fuel in the final qualifier due to his engine being set too rich, Serpent’s Dominic Greiner said having also tried a different set-up on his 747 it was not great.  Planning to run his basic set-up for the final, he said while its not so fast it makes the car easy to drive and this is important for a long final.  Top Serpent in Q4 was Greiner’s team-mate Mark Green.  Switching to his World Championship set-up, the British ace said it was a lot better and while the track got slower he was able to post his fastest qualifying run of the weekend helping him to secure 9th on the grid for the final. Describing the car as now being comfortable to drive he said he still needs to find between 1 to 2/10ths of a second a lap if he wants to be competitive in the final.

Completing the Top 6 on the grid ahead of former European Champion Dirk Wischnewski, Luca Redaelli ended qualifying as the best placed Xray.  Failing to finish the final qualifier after a crash while running 4th, the reigning European B Champion said it was ‘not a good day’.  Struggling with ‘no steering, no traction’, he plans to try a completely different set-up for tomorrow’s A-Main practice adding he hopes to ‘find something’.

Completing the line up of 10 direct qualifier, two more drivers from the lower finals set to join the back of the A-Main grid based on their fastest race times, HB/Orion driver Adrien Bertin lines up 8th ahead of Green with Xray’s Alexander Thilo securing tenth having put in his best round in Q4 with the 7th fastest time.

1:10 200mm A-Main Grid
1. Teemu Leino – HB/Novarossi – 310 pts
2. Dario Balestri – Capricorn/XRD – 310
3. Francesco Tironi – Shepherd/Novarossi – 306
4. Eric Dankel – Capricorn/Maxima – 306
5. Dominic Greiner – Serpent/Picco – 302
6. Luca Redaelli – Xray/Picco – 301
7. Dirk Wischnewski – Shepherd/Orcan – 301
8. Adrien Bertin – HB/Orion – 299
9. Mark Green – Serpent/Novarossi – 297
10.Alexander Thilo – Xray/Orcan – 295
(2 more drivers to bump up from lower mains)

1:10 200mm Q4 times – Top 10
1. Teemu Leino – HB/Novarossi – 13/4:18.258
2. Eric Dankel – Capricorn/Maxima – 12/4:00.047
3. Francesco Tironi – Shepherd/Novarossi – 12/4:00.664
4. Adrien Bertin – HB/Orion – 12/4:01.270
5. Mark Green – Serpent/Novarossi – 12/4:01.559
6. Dirk Wischnewski – Shepherd/Orcan – 12/4:01.640
7. Alexander Thilo – Xray/Novarossi – 12/4:01.721
8. Rene Pupke – Shepherd/Sonic – 12/4:04.279
9. Dario Balestri – Capricorn/XRD – 12/4:04.443
10.Rico Krober – Xray/Orcan – 12/4:04.686

View the complete results here.

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