Balestri starts ENS title defense on pole

Dario Balestri will start his title defence from pole position after securing the overall TQ for the second year running at the Euro Nitro Series season opener in Bologna, Italy. Going into the fourth & final round of qualifying as one of four drivers who could become Top Qualifier, the Capricorn ace almost matched his Q1 TQ pace to again top the times, this time from Infinity’s Carmine Raiola and WRC’s Andrea Pirani, the latter posting the fastest lap of the round. While traffic would again hamper him in Q4, thanks to his TQ run in Q2 Mirko Salemi secures an ENS career best of 2nd on the grid. Carmine’s P2 in the final qualifier would see him snatch third on the grid from Simon Kurzbuch on tie break while Robert Pietsch made it five different manufacturers at the front end of the grid.

‘I’m super happy to TQ as the track was super hard in the last round’ was Balestri reaction to the TQ that marks him out as the ENS’ best qualifier. With track temperature dropping for the final heat, qualifying having to be packed in a single day due to the pending bad weather, he said his CO8 RS ‘had super steering in the front’ he said to complete the qualifier ‘without a mistake was good’. Asked about the final, the Italian said, ‘at the moment I don’t know the forecast but one thing is that we change a lot of tyres in the race’.

Impressing everyone with his TQ in Q2, BP Racing’s Salemi said, ‘I’m happy but pole was also possible today’. A previous ENS A-Finalist, this weekend is the first time the 24-year-old has looked like a race contender and asked about the final he said, ‘I’m happy with the performance of the car for the final but with tyre wear so high getting the number of stops right is going to have a big influence on the outcome of the race’.

As one of the original drivers to get involved with the Infinity project, Carmine sad he was very happy to qualify third. The 2013 Worlds Finalist said, ‘I have been involved with Kenji on this project for 2-years and with this the first big race for the team its nice to be the lead Infinity.’ With ‘everything looking good’, the former Italian champion said, ‘I am going for the win’. Asked if had he concerns over tyre wear the 24-year-old’s response was ‘my biggest concern is the start’ adding he hoped for a clean start.

‘Finally I am ready now’ was Kurzbuch’s reaction after his P3 run in the final qualifier. The World Champion said while his Shepherd was fast before it wasn’t easy to drive but now they have got a good feeling with it which is ‘what I need for a 45-minute race’. In with a chance of the overall TQ, the Swiss driver ‘went all in’ in Q4 but a mistake ended his chance however he was still pleased that he now knows he has a good car for the final. Asked about strategy for the final he said tyre wear due to work done on the surface during the off season and fuel consumption due to the high speed layout of the track were going to be factors. Asked how important the pit crew would be he looked to his father and said ‘my pitman is World Champion approved’.

Pietsch’s frame of mind was in contrast to that of Kurzbuch, the former World Champion saying ‘with it (his car) as it is I have no chance’. The Mugen designer and lead driver said ‘I didn’t find the right set-up today and even though I changed it every run I didn’t find a direction that was better’. Asked what he could do for the final, he replied ‘I will change the set-up again and hopefully I will get lucky that the changes work’.

Winner of this event last year, Lamberto Collari starts his home race from 6th on the grid. With ‘the last heat much better’, the master of 1:8 Onroad added, ‘I now have a good feeling in the hands with the car’. Planning some changes to his Infinity’s set-up for the final he said they would make ‘little adjustments and not big differences’. A driver widely respected as the professor of race strategy he said ‘we need to check better the tyre wear but for sure there will be many changes’.

Behind Collari, Toni Gruber had a strong conclusion to qualifying to put his ARC 7th on the grid. Having shown he has the speed by topping practice and TQing the third qualifier, Merlin Depta will start 8th as the top Serpent with Robin D’hondt and Mattia Collavo completing the Top 10 direct qualifiers. Two more drivers will get to bump up from the B-Main to make up the final 12 car grid.

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