The 2015 EFRA 1/8th Nitro On-road European Championships B was held in Italy again, this time at the nice CIRCUITO INTERNAZIONALE L.COLLARI in Cassino, 100km away from Rome.
Free practice started on Monday, but rainy weather reduced the practice time to a minimum at all three practice days. The new RX8 Prototype showed a good basic speed and we could improve the setup of the car to get the first spot in the penultimate qualification group.
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Struggling with the fuel consumption I could finally manage to qualify 2nd overall with one TQ run in the all new qualification point system. TQ man Luca Piromalli took the first of two direct start spots in the A Final.
Qualifying top 10:
1. Luca Piromalli
2. Tom Krägefski - XRAY RX8
3. Mattia Collavo
4. Tim Wood
5. Paolo Massari
6. Davide Stafanizzi
7. Valeria Moccia
8. Cristiano Sartor
9. Antonio Calce
10.Fabio Vecchiatti
Also new at the EFRA qualification was the second direct qualification spot via the Superpole Match.
Sander de Graaf from EFRA wrote the following:
âśIn the Superpole the 2nd to 5th qualifier got the opportunity to grab a direct spot for the main final by pulling 6 hot laps on the track, one by one, each driver on his own. The fastest lap will award the runner-up spot for the main final, the remaining three drivers will be seeded into the semifinals to try and get a bump-up spot.âť
As last driver of the match I could post a very good 14.385s Lap time and won the match over Matteo Collavo with 14.445s.
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On Saturday we had perfect weather conditions to start the 45minute race. All drivers in the first spots had a clear and nice start. Caused in a different fuel and tire strategies and a perfect job in the pits by Bertram Kessler and Silvio Hächler, I was able to close up to Luca and get into the lead a few minutes before the end of the race. Unfortunately a small mistake when exiting the pit lane after the last pit stop let me fell back to second place.
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Final result:
1. Luca Piromalli 2. Tom Krägefski ⓠXRAY RX8
3. Davide Stefanizzi
4. Francesco Annunziata
5. Paolo Massari
6. Tim Wood
7. Alberto Vaccariello
8. Christophe Pethoud
9. Simone Pausini
10.Fabio Vecchiatti
All in all we had a great week in Italy, happy about the European Vice-Champion B title I look forward to the next races with the all new RX8.
