Balestri just edges out Leino to take Q2 in Bangkok
Dario Balestri has taken the second round of qualifying at the 1:10 Nitro World Championship after just edging out Infinity team-mate Teemu Leino in the closing laps of the 7-minute encounter. After both himself and Leino DNF’d the opening qualifier, both drivers needed to get their first points on the board. With Toni Gruber, who took everyone by surprise with his TQ in Round 1, having a slower Q2, and second fastest man Jilles Groskamp unable to start after suffering an engine failure in the warm-up for his second quali run, it was Leino who lead out the top heat. However, hitting traffic at the end of the run as Balestri set his fastest lap on his penultimate lap it was the Italian who took it by 13/100ths of a second from the Finn. Behind the Europeans Australia’s Jessie Davis bettered his Q1 P6 with the third fastest time with Francesco Tironi again in the mix at the front after his opening P3 effort. While Gruber would set the 6th fastest time for Q2 the Capricorn driver would have his time deleted as his rear wing was deemed to be too high in post tech inspection.
