Team France drivers competed in two of their three qualifying heats on Thursday, in other words we were into the nitty-gritty of the Rotax Grand Finals 2013. It hasn’t all been easy on the unique circuit at Nola Motorsports Park.
It was both good and less good in DD2 Masters. This is the category where there are most French drivers, with five drivers. Beginning with the disappointment of the day, the 37th position for Michael Dauphin. A brilliant second in his first heat, Michael paid dearly for his attack on the start of the second lap of the next heat as he remained on the spot while the whole pack took avoiding action. He still has a heat on Friday to recover. Meanwhile, Christophe Adams (photo in midair above) took two good results and is currently ranked 5th in the class with excellent morale. With his unusual seriousness, he is focused on the future. Morgan Hipp was able to regain ground: with 5th and 12th, he is in 11th place. He has learned the track and was working on fine-tuning the chassis so will be able to start Friday with very good prospects. Marc Berteaux also performed well, first up to 15th after a difficult start to the race where he started 25th, then to fifth after a good start, not to mention a bit of luck when a rock crashed into his radiator and emptied some of its water, brushing against the limit on the scales. Guillaume Berteaux continued to have problems with the Praga and failed to get closer to his normal level of performance. Guillaume was not happy!
In DD2, Maxime Gravouille regained speed and confidence with a chassis that had been straightened twice. Delayed by an accident in front of him at first, he then moved up on the first lap from 30th to 16th place, but got the same result in the next with a less convincing set-up. His total for the day was 25th. Lucas Joly was on a similar track, the two remaining drivers together on the track. A penalty of 3” in heat 1, due to his lack of experience in DD2 he is only in 39th position, but he is still satisfied to be racing at this level. For both, they are now aiming to qualify for the final. It was a black day for the driver who had been leader of the French contingent after a good qualifying and Alex Finkelstein was not very happy on Thursday night. It started well in heat one with 6th place on lap 2, but a premature attack then caused his retirement as well as some damages to the chassis. The CRG tube wasn’t as good in the second heat, a real nightmare for Alex who was a best a second from the fastest lap. It is difficult to make predictions for the rest of the competition, but we can reasonably assume that the driver will be looking for a big comeback on Friday morning.
In Seniors there was a blow for Jules Cousin who crashed into a driver in front of him, powerless to do anything on lap 1 and then he gave up. 15th in next race, he now has to be faultless in the lady heat. It was a quieter day for Xavier Pozzoli, as despite losing time he saved his position in the first, and improved significantly in the second – to 13th – and remains confident of his chances to qualify for the final.
As always happy to be here, Bastien Leguay managed a very good first heat, finishing in 8th place despite a bad start. But his speed was confirmed by the fastest time of the race by 2/10 in front of everyone, so he was able to recover. The second race was more complicated with a more effective set-up and quite a scramble, but he finished 10th and is still 14th in the intermediate classification.
One decisive heat is to run on Friday morning before the verdict: final or no final … Suspense!
Info Kartcom with Kartlink / © Photo KSP