Balestri TQs 1:8 at Euro Nitro Series

Dario Balestri is the Top Qualifier for the season opening race of the Euro Nitro Series, the Capricorn driver set to start Sunday’s 45-minute Main ahead of host track owner and master of race strategy Lamberto Collari.  Going into the sixth round of qualifying it was only Collari who could deny the European Champion from starting on pole but it would be Alberto Picco that would catch them all by surprise as he TQ’d what would become the days final qualifier.  A scheduled seventh round of qualifying would be cancelled due to the arrival of rain at the L.Collari RC Raceway.  Defending ENS Champion Simon Kurzbuch will line-up 6th for the start of his title defence, two places behind his main 2014 title rival Robert Pietsch.

Despite crashing in the pitlane at the start of the sixth qualifier when unsighted by mechanics he ran into Picco’s Mugen, damaging his Capricorn’s bumper and bodyshell, Balestri was happy to secure the overall TQ.  Taking three of the six qualifiers, the Italian said while he expects a hard race he goes into the final ‘confident’ he can become the first driver to record a win in both categories of the ENS having won last season’s final round in 1:10.  Expecting the greatest challenge to come ‘as always from Lamberto (Collari) and Robert (Pietsch)’.  Describing tyre wear as medium he said everyone will need to stop once but two could be necessary.  His first international race with his new Tesla engines, he said while they managed a 5-minute run in practice the risk was too high for the final and he will play safe with a 4:30 strategy.

While Collari is sure to have a master plan for a track he knows like the back of his hand having started his 9-time World Championship winning career here aged 6 when the track was opened in 1978, starting third on the grid Andrea Pirani’s main focus is to run an error free final.  The WRC driver said with the top 5 very close on pace its going to be a difficult race and while the track is hard on engines he is going to do one more fuel stop to be safe adding he doesn’t think 5-minutes would be possible anyway due to how much of the lap is full throttle. On tyres he said he will make one stop but this would be the case for everyone.

Qualifying just behind his leading team driver Pietsch, Picco was very happy with his TQ run in Q6 which helped him secure 5th on the grid.  Looking to the final the 1:8 onroad veteran said the field was very strong with the gap between them very small. Going up against ‘younger, better drivers’ he would just do his best and ‘see what happens’.  Asking the Picco engines owner about runtime he said 5-minutes was a risk especially repeating it over 45-minutes.  He said the risk of damaging a plug and the engine by running out of fuel made it best to take the conservative option of one extra stop.

‘Sixth not bad considering my heat’ was how Kurzbuch summed up his qualifying performance. Having been seeded in the second fastest heat with traffic delaying the 2-time World Finalist each round, the Shepherd driver said he had hoped to use Q7 to test a different Novarossi engine but will now do that along with his tyre calculations in tomorrow’s practice session.

View complete event results here.

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