Round 1 of the Spanish Nationals took place in Valencia at the magnificent track at Almussafes. Rain had been falling throughout the entire week rain in Valencia and on Friday the track was completely wet. With the weather forecast telling of not much better weather on Saturday, very few drivers tested on Friday. This left all of the participants with having all the work to do during the two practice heats on Saturday morning.
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As predicted, on Saturday the day was grey and rainy, although there was a forecast for better conditions between 11AMâ“3PM. Most of the drivers risked their race and waited until the track conditions were perfect to do their heat. The first qualifier was held in wet conditions, and the rain had stopped falling. The track conditions in the second qualifier were much better, despite having two or three corners with very precarious conditions.
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Nevertheless, none of the drivers wanted to miss the possibility of racing in dry conditions. Thankfully the rain continued to hold back and the sun made an appearance for a few minutes which helped to completely dry the track. This meant that Q3 was the real occasion to TQ the race. Jonhy Pastor, Josep GradolĂ and Inaki Pahissa (all three driving XRAY) qualified directly into the final.
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The weather was much better on Sunday than it had been the previous days. From the semi-finals, Fabio Barbosa, Tony Mur and Sergi Franch bumped up into the final, making it six XRAY in the main. What a great result to start the season!
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The main started and Jonhy quickly got into the lead and dominated the final from beginning to end. Fabio Barbosa followed, having no chance of beating Jonhy due to a different strategy, which obliged him to enter the pits one extra time. It was bad luck for I?aki who had two race incidents â” one on track and the other one in pit lane â” and saw all his chances of making it in the podium disappaer. Despite not having any chance of winning, Inaki set the fastest lap of the final 0.2sec ahead of the second fastest of the main, proving that he had lots of chances of fighting for the win.
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Tony Mur also had a few problems during the final and finished 7th. Sergi Franch (who moved to XRAY for 2011) had a great final and finished 5th. Most disappointing luck in the final was by Josep Gradoli who had been fighting for 3rd for all the final and with just a few minutes to go had something go wrong and was forced to enter the pits, losing all possibility of achieving a better result. Finally, Josep ended up last of the main.
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1. Jonnhy Pastor XRAY NT1
2. Fabio Barbosa Araujo XRAY NT1
3. Victor Pelaez Olivares
4. Oscar Romero 5. Sergi Franch Codina XRAY NT1
6. Inaki Pahissa Lopez XRAY NT1
7. Tony Mur XRAY NT1
8. Luis Cayetano MartĂnez Paredes
9. Edu EscandĂłn 10. Josep Gradoli XRAY NT1
