Orense in northern Spain set the scene for Round 3 of the Spanish Nationals. The track was completely new for all drivers and the weather was extremely warm at over 40?C.
Jonhy Pastor had his first match ball to win the championship after winning the first two rounds. Drivers like Edu Escandon, Victor Pelaez, Sergi Franch and Inaki Pahissa still had some chances of winning the championship and as such they would do their best to win this third round.
Right from the beginning, Inaki seemed to be the fastest driver on the track. Not only because his fastest lap was the best done so far, but also because his pace was very constant with minimal mistakes. Jonhy and Sergi also found a good set-up on Friday practice and this meant that the qualifiers would be exciting with two drivers having to win the race while Jonhy just had to take it easy and secure a good result to become National Champion.
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Qualifiers started on Saturday and Sergi was the only XRAY driver to place himself in the top positions. Jonhy had some issues during the heat and Inaki made a mistake which ruined his heat. Things changed after the second round, with Inaki being able to get a clear run and finishing 2nd just 1 second behind TQ. Sergi improved his time and secured 3rd. Jonhy has some trouble again with driving his car and was unable to make a good time, but good enough to make it to the final and now he was left with just two more opportunities to improve. Unfortunately for Jonhy those two rounds were the ones where the track was warmer and when the air temperature was way above 40?C. As predicted, the third round was ruined because of the heat and no one improved. The fourth (last) qualifier was a bit better as the track was a bit cooler than before, but it was still very warm. Inaki tried to take over TQ but despite having a perfect heat with no mistakes and the car performing perfectly he was unable to improve his time and so stayed in 2nd position overall. Jonhy on the other hand was able to set the fourth fastest time and make it into the final, avoiding the semi-finals on Sunday and making his shot at becoming champion a whole lot easier.
The biggest concern for the main was tire wear. In qualifiers we had up to 4mm worn in 7 minutes and so the chances of making a tire change in the final were high. In this race, drivers also had to think about their strategy and see what best suited them. Most drivers opted for using harder tires (42 rear, 40 front), while Sergi and Inaki went for different strategies. Sergi thought about a tire change and Inaki used softer tires (40 rear, 37 front). This meant that he had to take it easy for the first half of the race and push on the last 10 minutes. With all the different strategies the final got under way with Edu Escandon pushing from the very first minute while Inaki babied his tires. Behind them Sergi and Jonhy were battling for 3rd position until both of them had a flame out. This left the battle between Inaki and Edu. Both drivers were separated by only a few seconds and this went on for the last 10 minutes of the race. Edu had better pit stops but later on Inaki was faster on his fresh tires. In the end only 1 second separated Inaki from victory, and he finished 2nd behind Edu Escandon. Jonhy, after his flame out, climbed up to 4th and thus he became National Champion for the second year in a row.
As far as XRAY was concerned, once again the NT1 was the car with most representation, not only in the final but also in the entire event and of course the brand achieved its second National Championship in Spain.
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Final results:
1. Edu Escandon 2. Inaki Pahissa XRAY NT1
3. Victor Pelaez 4. Jonhy Pastor XRAY NT1
5. Sergi Franch XRAY NT1
6. Hugo Santos 7. Christian Lopez XRAY NT1
8. Adrian Santeiro XRAY NT1
9. David Campos XRAY NT1
10. Mariano Diaz
