Gruber takes Q3 as Ripoll holds overnight TQ in Chile
Day 1 of qualifying at the IFMAR 1:8 Onroad World Championship has been completed in Chile and it has provided plenty of variety with the three rounds producing TQ runs from three different drivers, Capricorn’s Toni Gruber coming good on his status as one of the title favourites to TQ the day’s final encounter. With Top Seed Andrea Catanzani steering his Serpent to the opening TQ, the second round saw the number 2 seed Maxime Ripoll deliver on his impressive practice form with a TQ run and together with a P2 in the last run of the day the 19-year-old French driver leaves the CACH Facility this evening as the overall TQ holder. With Gruber having highlighted the afternoon runs were he was strongest, the German was locked in a tight battle for the Q3 top spot with it going down to the wire with Ripoll, and Mugen Seiki’s Shoki Takahata until the latter had a bad lap. In the end Gruber would have an advantage of 3/10ths of a second over Ripoll at the end of the 7-minutes with Takahata competing the Top 3 ahead of the Capricorn of Thilo Diekmann. For Catazani the day wouldn’t finish as it started as his car came to stop on track. Having had his crew practice pit stops during the lunch break, this time it would be Catanzani’s own error during the stop as he came in too fast and got out of shape under braking. Still in TQ contention however, a driver error on track at the same spot as his contact with Ripoll a round earlier, would cancel that potential. With his engine running very lean in the qualifier it would eventually stop just shy of the 7-minutes. With the 7-minute heats bringing an extra element to the qualifiers and piling the pressure on pit crews, Simon Kurzbuch would end the day with a bad stop. With his pitman unable to catch the car properly, the fuel was released all over the car causing the former World Champion to spin on release and with no fuel taken on he would have to revisit the pit lane, the result being a P9 for the round. Despite this the Swiss racer holds P3 just ahead of team-mate Takahata with Catanzani fifth.
