Kurzbuch cuts it fine with fuel to take 1/8th Q1

Simon Kurzbuch has taken the opening round of qualifying at the ENS season opener in Bologna as a number of the leaders struggled with fuel on the last lap of the 4-minute qualifier. Carmine Raiola took the 2nd spot from the 2nd fastest heat, while Dario Balestri took 3rd having lead the heat until coming up dry on the final lap. Lamberto Collari took 4th on his home track while Mirko Salemi ended Q1 in 5th, just ahead of top seed Robert Pietsch who struggled with traffic at the beginning of the run which threw him out of his rhythm. Running out of fuel directly after crossing the line, Kurzbuch admitted that it was ‘really tight’ and he was lucky that the qualifying was over when his car came to a halt. Happy to take the first round TQ he said the first 2 minutes were good but then he came upon two other cars in the run but he wasn’t able to close the gap and so lost a lot of time in the final half of the run. Having flamed out at high speed, the Swiss driver will now check over his Novarossi engine for any potential damage.

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