By: Cesar Salvadori.
Qualifing:
The rain ended with some drivers strategy for the final rounds
and finished with the chance of other drivers to recover important
positions.
Pirani: had a clean qualify
on the first day but didn't managed to improve on 3rd and 4th
rounds on the superfast track and that means he had no chance
to fight for a top4 placing.
Balestri: was
very fast from the start of qualifying, although he struggled
with engine consistency when trying the constant pressure device
to make 5 minutes and ended up wasting the two first rounds.
In rounds 3 and 4 Balestri did it the safe way, with one of
the fastest cars on the track he pushed very hard and even with
2 pitstops for refuelling he managed to be the 8th fastest driver,
and guaranteed his place on the semifinal grid.
Collari: as it
was expected was the smoothest driver around the track, always
fast and fighting with Fantini in every round to set the TQ
time. Lamberto did not keep tha same pace of Fantini but managed
to make 34 laps and comfortably bump to the final direct with
the 2nd fastest qualifying time.
Pietsch: also
managed to lead one of the semifinal line up ending the qualifying
sessions on the 6th position.
SEMIFINALS
The even semifinal had a constellation of Italian drivers represented
by Balestri, Domanin, Romagnolli, Solaroli and Andrea Cristiani
who bumped from the 1/4th final.
Balestri was the fastest on the track and even facing problems
with carburettor setting (he lost time in 2 pitstops for readjusting),
a stop and go for bad refuelling and one mistake which made
some damage to his bodyshell, he managed to finish 3rd half
second behind mark green.
Pietsch had some problems costing him the chance to make into
the final. Cristiani with a clean race dominated the
race from the 5th minute and made it to the main final along
with Mark Green on 2nd place. Balestri and Romagnolly had to
wait for the odd 1/2 final to know if the race was over for
them.
ODD semi:
Bad luck for NR drivers with Vuga facing problems with his tires
and leaving the race on the first minutes.
Pirani was fighting for the top 3 places but he met Tironi car
crossing the track after a mistake and seriously damaged his
car.
This semi was contemplated by lots of mechanical problems and
form the middle of the race only 6 cars kept on the track with
two of them (Pirani and Tironi) way off the pace after their
crash on the beginning of the race Ielasi and Sahashi with no
problems bumped to the final. Salemi was slower than most of
the drivers but ran a clean race and finished 3rd, few seconds
ahead of Salven who was very fast but crashed on the very first
lap and had to change a damaged tire. So Salven was out.
So the group joining the TOP4 qualifiers was:
Cristiani, Green, Balestri,
Sahashi, Ielasi, Salemi
FINAL:
Right from the first lap Fantini and Collari showed it should
be a particular fight between both Italian drivers. They quickly
pulled away from the rest of the pack leaving the other drivers
fighting against themselves and the fast Cristiani trying the
recover the lap lost for a tire change after the accident on
the start.
Collari pushed very hard and Fantini drove on the defensive
instance to keep his 1st place. At the first attempt to pass
Fantini, Collari forced at the end of the straight, Fantini
was inside and a small touch made Collari spin and Fantini kept
in 1st.
At 10min Collari pushed very hard again right after the 2nd
pitstop for refuelling. With serious pressure on Fantini, Collari
approached a lot on the S, Fantini touched the curb before the
main straight loosing some traction and allowing Collari to
go side by side down the straight and make an incredible pass
on the high speed turn to receive the applause of the crazy
crowd watching the race.
Fantini pushed hard trying to get close to Collari but made
a mistake on the S loosing important seconds and damaging his
car.
Collari had a huge advantage over the rest of the drivers and
that time Cristiani was already on the same lap of the leader.
In the middle of the race the pitstps for changing tires have
changed the history of the race. Tosolini with a misterious
strategy was 1st, followed by Collari who changed his tires.
The race became exciting again with Collari trying to pass Tosolini
every lap. When they came for refuelling everybody was expecting
the time when Tosolini would change his tires, but nothing.
Collari attempted to pass Tosolini twice, but both attempts
resulted on a little touch and Tosolini remain 1st.
On the last 10 minutes Collari did the 3rd attempt but a hard
touch on the rear end of Tosolini car costed him a stop and
go and let Tosolini breathe a little bit. With very few laps
Collari recovered the lost seconds and tried to pass Tosolini
like he did with Fantini, a hard approach before the S leaving
Tosolini on the outside anf finally Collari was 1st with only
3 minutes for the finish.
Tosolini was way of the pace and let Cristiani get closer and
easily pass hom to finished 2nd 4 seconds behind the 8th time
world champion LAMBERTO COLLARI
!
Final results:
1. Lamberto Collari - 193 Laps
in 1:00:06.035 (NOVA/COLLARI)
2. Andrea Cristiani - 193 Laps in 1:00:10.657 (MAX)
3. Chris Tosolini - 193 Laps in 1:00:12.287
4. Adrien Bertin - 191 Laps in 1:00:00.086
5. Mark Green - 190 Laps in 1:00:16.087
6. Daniele Ielasi - 189 Laps in 1:00:04.449
7. Massimo Fantini - 188 Laps in 1:00:8.629 (MAX)
8. Yuya Sahashi - 169 Laps in 1:00:17.426
9. Walter Salemi - 143 Laps in 46:52.817
10. Dario Balestri - 121 Laps
in 45:26.248 (NOVA PLUS 2)
|
