Balestri takes opening qualifier at Worlds as rain looms in Gubbio
Infinity’s Dario Balestri has taken the opening round of qualifying at IFMAR 1:10 Nitro Touring Car World Championship, the run even more important with the threat of rain looming at the Gubbio track in Italy. The top seed after yesterday’s timed practice which took place in sunny conditions, the first day of qualifying at Miniautodromo Internazionale Mario Rosati saw racers greeted by overcast conditions with very slight drops of rain even falling as the top two heats completed their the first of their six scheduled run. Originally set to be a day consisting of 3 rounds, with tomorrow looking like it will be rained out, the organisers have now revised the schedule to run four rounds today with the best 2 of 4 to count. Behind Balestri, it was reigning World Champion Jilles Groskamp who was second fastest but some bit back on his team-mate who was the only one to run 27-laps over the 7-minutes. Seeding P5, British driver Alex Thurston completed the Top 3, saying like Groskamp, it was a result of consistency rather than outright speed. Second fastest in seeding 2008 World Champion Naoto Matsukura had a mistake on his opening run that left him P20 of the 114 drivers to post a time. Competing the Top 3 on seeding, up & coming Italian talent Filippo Domanin would also have two mistakes on his run one involving another driver leaving the quick Xray driver to register a P8.
