BREAKING NEWS – Catanzani penalty revoked

Andrea Catanzani’s 3-second penalty for track limits has been rescinded meaning the Serpent driver takes the TQ for the third round of qualifying at the 1:8 GT World Championship.   More than two & a half hours after the Italian had 3-seconds added to his time because it was too late in the heat to serve a drive through penalty for track limits, it was rescinded due to IFMAR rules only allowing track limits at pit entry/exit.  Jeff Hamon was credited with the TQ for the round when the penalty was imposed but now the top seed gets a P2 for the round as how they originally crossed the line in qualifying.

Hamon TQs Q3 after Catanzani penalised for track limits

Jeff Hamon has taken the TQ for the third round of qualifying at the 1:8 GT World Championship but only after a post race time penalty was applied to his Serpent team-mate Andrea Catanzani for track limits.  Having run out of fuel while on a TQ run in the opening qualifier this morning, and then suffering a flame out in Q2, Catanzani looked to bring the first day of qualifying in Sydney to a close by finally delivering a TQ run.  Given a warning during the qualifier about track limits, later in the heat the Italian was called to serve a drive through penalty but didn’t have time to serve it.  Crossing the line as the TQ, it initially looked like the result would stand but a protest was made and some time later he was informed he would have 3-seconds added to his time dropping him behind Hamon.  While his team argued that the track limits rule was nothing they had come across before, and was something more applicable to Formula 1, they had no grounds to appeal the penalty.  In all the drama it was top be a very good round for defending Champion Joern Neumann as the Sworkz driver posted the third fastest time ahead of Alex D’angelo and Natanaele Senesi.  Having TQ’d the first two rounds, Toni Gruber would get 6th for the round having opted to go with used tyres.

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Paloschi denies Hamon in penultimate seeding round

An impressive run in the third & penultimate round of seeding practice by Serpent’s Gabriele Paloschi has denied team-mate Jeff Hamon from securing an early top seed status at the 1:8 GT World Championship in Australia this evening.  Running a heat earlier than the championship’s title favourites, Paloschi’s impressive time went pretty much unnoticed as Hamon went on to top the final heat of the round from Toni Gruber, which the Aussie and almost everyone else thought had secured him the top seed spot for qualifying.  Running his three laps in 55.844, European Championship podium finisher Paloschi had ran his in 55.821.  With the second round of seeding a repeat of the opening run, Hamon from Andrea Catanzani and Xray’s Natanaele Senesi, Paloschi topping the third round moves him up to third in Serpent lockout of the top 3 going into the final seeding run in the morning.

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Catanzani just pipped by Hamon in first seeding round

Serpent’s Andrea Catanzani looked like giving us a new name at the top of the timing sheets at 1:8 GT World Championship as seeding got underway in Australia but with just seconds to go team-mate Jeff Hamon somehow managed to recover from a problematic start to the run to snatch it from the young Italian.  A run that would see a number of drivers in the top heat experience issues,  Catanzani was the first driver to break into the 54-seconds for his 3-consecutive laps and looking to save tyres was already down off the rostrum just after half way through the 10-minutes run with his time looking strong enough to hold.  Having set the pace yesterday, Hamon was also off the driver stand but for different reasons as he suffered brake problems.  Considering abandoning the run, with just enough time to make an attempt at 3-laps after fixing his breaks the Aussie pulled it off pipping Catanzani by 0.094 of a second. Having finished out yesterday’s controlled practice with some promising runs, Natanaele Senesi carried that form into seeding opening his account with a P3 for the first of the four rounds ahead of Paolo Morganti and Toni Gruber.

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Hamon sets early pace at GT World Championship

Serpent’s Jeff Hamon is the early pace setter in practice at the IFMAR 1:8 GT World Championship in Sydney, Australia.  Winner of the Worlds Warm-up Race back in April when the final was rained off, the Australian set his fastest 3-consecutive laps ahead of Hong Nor’s Toni Gruber – Hamon’s best run coming in the cool conditions of the morning first practice while Gruber’s best came in the 31 degree heat of the fourth of the 6 rounds on today’s schedule.  IGT8 boss Paolo Morganti sits third fastest with European GT Champion Bernard-Alain Arnaldi making it four different manufacturer at the top of the timing sheets driving his Genius Racing chassis.  With visiting drivers trying to get their heads around the low grip levels at the John Grant International Raceway track, which hosted the 1:8 Onroad World Championship back in 2001, European GT Championship Top Qualifier Andrea Catanzani sits fifth fastest ahead of the Sworkz of reigning World Champion Joern Neumann, who like fellow countryman Gruber found improvement in CP4.

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