Maifield comes close but another TQ run for Tessmann

Ryan Maifield came close to toppling Ty Tessmann’s reign over qualifying at the 1:8 Offroad World Championships in Sicily with the American and Canadian separated by the closest gap seen yet at the Naxos World track.  With Tessmann having stamped his authority on Day 1 of qualifying, topping Q1 by 7-seconds and ending Q2 with a 5-second advantage, in this morning’s third round the separation was just 3/10ths at the end of the 10-minutes at the end of a round which saw both drivers have issues on leaving the pits after their fuel stops.  A slower pace than yesterday, overnight hail making the track’s tiled section lose traction, Lee Martin ran the 3rd fastest time while team-mate & defending champion Robert Batlle had a tough round finishing outside the Top 16.

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