Greiner top seed for qualifying at ENS Finale

Dominic Greiner is the top seed for qualifying at the Euro Nitro Series in Fiorano, the title challenger heading a Serpent 1-2 in controlled practice.  Despite having suffered radio problems in the first and fastest of his two runs Greiner would end up over 4/10ths faster than team-mate Alessio Mazzeo.  Spanish driver Eduardo Escandón would complete the Top 3 ahead of World Champion Alexander Hagberg, with Dirk Wischnewski and Bruno Coelho completing the Top 6, all drivers setting the best times in CP1.  The highest placed driver to record his time in CP2 would be Shepherd’s Patrick Nähr who was seventh fastest.  For championship leader Jilles Groskamp his struggles continued as he ended up only 18th fastest with a time set in the slower track conditions of CP2.

While happy to maintain his position at the top of the time sheets having also set the pace in free practice, Greiner said the controlled practices did not go well.  In CP1 having just laid down his fastest 3-consecutive laps, the German would suffer a ‘hard crash’ as a result of radio problems.  Fitting new parts to his 748 following the impact, he would start CP2 late as they had just finished the car and as a result he ran much of the run with a cold engine, but once it got up to temperature and he got some clean laps he was happy the car was not affected by the crash.

Describing his car as ‘very, very good’, Mazzeo said they tried a different set-up in CP2 targeted at 4-minutes as opposed to just 3-laps and the just turned 24-year-old believes they can further improve the 748 for Q1.  Running Gimar’s 2016 engine release, he was very happy with the new unit adding he was confident that he and his team-mate Greiner are in good shape for qualifying.

2014 European Championship runner-up Escandòn, who is making his ENS debut, said he was very happy with controlled practice having struggled with engine problems yesterday.  The 25-year-old KM Racing driver said his Novarossi engines were working much better today and he is ‘pretty happy’ with his pace.  Changing bodyshell for CP2 to a more forward mounted Spark body he said it was not good and he will go back to the previous one.

Hagberg said his NT1 was now pretty good with him having found ‘good steering’.  The Swede added while it ‘may be a little hard to drive’ in terms of consistency he was ‘happy with (his) pace so far’.  Looking to improve consistency he will make ‘some small changes for qualifying’.  Team-mate Coelho, who was 6th fastest, said while they improved a little he still needed to find more steering.  Trying a more aggressive driving style to get the rear of the car to break loose in corners to induce more steering he said due to the low grip this didn’t help and he ‘need(s) to do something in the car’.

Fifth fastest between the two Xray’s, Wischnewski said he struggled in CP2 after making a set-up change he expected would give more steering but didn’t.  Planning to go back to his CP1 set-up, the Shepherd driver said it ‘seems warmer conditions causes the car to struggle’.

For the HB team, who sit 1-2 in the championship standings, their drivers had opposing views.  Setting the 9th fastest time Teemu Leino said a tuning issue with his Novarossi engine which was too rich in CP1 left him with a time worse than his actual pace.  Describing his R10 as ‘feel(ing) pretty good now’ the Finn feels with the right engine tuning it should be all OK for Q1.  Groskamp was less positive about things going into qualifying, the Dutch driver saying he is ‘still struggling and not sure what it is’.  Adding ‘it’s hard to find a good set-up here’, he said while CP2 was a slower track at least he was able to improve on his CP1 time.

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