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published: 2011-07-29 18:07:30 (60926) Author: Oli_M

Another Dario Secures Another TQ!

A good day to be called 'Dario' at the EFRA Euros double-header weekend!
Dario Balestri has secured the top qualifier position here in Luxembourg as no other driver manages to beat his Round 1 time. Dario, runner up at this event one year ago, admitted he felt his first time was good and has been using the other qualifying runs to test some changes out on his car.

Behind Dario, and starting on pole in the B semi final, is Robert Pietsch. The defending champion said an incident in the pit stop in the final qualifying round cost him valuable time, and he missed out on Dario's TQ by 2 tenths of a second.


Robert believes he has got a good car this week and his first aim will be to drive a steady semi final to secure him a place in the main final. He hopes to be in a position to challenge Dario and thinks that we have seen from qualifying that the two of them have a small gap to the rest of the field.

Lamberto Collari left it until the final round to show his maximum pace, moving up to third overall. The Italian, whom even current World Champion Pietsch describes as a "Legend", missed the warm up race and so was still getting his car up to speed throughout qualifying. He is not sure if he will be able to find any more speed to challenge Dario and Robert tomorrow, but will look forward to trying some more tweaks in the Semi Final before the Main Final.
OVERALL QUALIFYING RESULTS
2011 1/8th Track European Championships

1 Dario Balestri (IT) - Capricorn / Novarossi / Contact
2 Robert Pietsch (DE) - Mugen / Novarossi / Contact
3 Lamberto Collari (IT) - Kyosho / Novarossi / Matrix
4 Eric Dankel (DE)
5 Simon Kurzbuch (CH)
6 Robin D'Hondt (BE)
7 Ilia Van Gastel (BE)
8 Rick Vrielijnck (NL)
9 Michele Romagnoli (IT)
10 Tobias Hepp (DE)
Stay tuned to www.EFRA.ws for a full video qualifying report shortly, as well as more action tomorrow from the finals, both in Luxembourg and Croatia!