Leino Top Qualifier at 1:10 Nitro World Championship
12 years after he took pole position at the IFMAR 1:10 Nitro World Championship at Bangkok’s other famous circuit RC Addict, Teemu Leino is once again the Top Qualifier at the nitro touring car category greatest race, this time at the challenging Huge RC Circuit. The Infinity driver was the only one who could repeat a TQ run over the 6 rounds of qualifying at the 10th running Worlds, but it was his team-mate Naoto Matsukura who officially sealed the deal for the veteran Finn. Running in the second fastest heat alongside Toni Gruber, Leino’s only remaining challenger for the top spot, and having shown promise of TQ pace with a P3 in the penultimate round, the 2018 Champion denied Gruber the TQ run he needed. Matsukura’s run would turn out to be the Q6 TQ time, none of the drivers in the top heat able to better his time, as he became the 5th different driver to TQ a round. Also in heat group 5 of 6, it would be 2022 Finalist Chavit Saligupta and 2012 Champion Meen Vejrak that completed the Top 3 for the closing round. Overall, Gruber would conclude qualifying in P2 and together with Dario Balestri, Jilles Groskamp and Saligupta would go into Super Pole to battle for the other direct position into Saturday’s 1-hour main alongside Leino. With each driver getting 6 laps to set a time, that shoot out would go to Groskamp who put down the fastest lap by 0.043 of a second from Gruber. Gruber will line up on pole for the Semi while 1:8 World Champion Balestri will lead away the other 30-minute encounter, the Super Pole favourite having a rough number of laps over his 6 attempts and slowest if the four contenders. After topping seeding but only managing one Top 5 qualifying run, defending Champion Tadahiko Sahashi just made the Semi Final cut and joins Balestri in his Semi lining up P7.
