RMCGF 2012 Portimao lap times fall

The Portuguese driver Bruno Borlido en route to the pole in Junior.

Qualifying marked the real start of the competition on Wednesday afternoon at Portimao with weather much refreshed by the incongruous presence of an icy wind. There was a fight for pole in DD2 Master with Florent Lambert and Guy Pansart who had bad luck with suction and the British driver set the fastest time, 3/100 ahead of him, with 1’00” 073. Second in the odd numbers, Pansart was in third position after the Argentine Henry Martin set the pole time in another session with 1’00” 059. The South African Cristiano Morgado was very threatening in fourth position. Guillaume Berteaux was assured in the end with a good 12th position just behind Mika Salo and Charly Hipp who finished 14th with a good lap of 1’00” 379. His cousin Morgan was at odds with his Corsa Haase chassis since the beginning of hostilities, he was so far back that he was 37th by almost 1 second.

Antoine Lepesqueux was on the pace in DD2 in 4th place in his group and seventh overall. Ahead of that the battle raged between the Belgian Xen De Ruwe, the poleman with a time of 59” 101, and the Austrian Simon Wagner, second by 0’042”. A British driver, Shaun Slavin was ahead of two formidable Canadians, Ben Cooper and Nicholas Latifi in 4th and 5th. Among the drivers likely to race ahead, we find the Belgian Mathias Detige and the Finnish Miika Laiho slightly further back in 18th and 19th positions. The French driver Sébastien Bertrand was 41st.

Serious contenders were at the top of qualifying with the Australian Senior Max Pierce Lehane on pole – 1’01” 062 – ahead of the British driver James Singleton in second place and the French Alexandre Finkelstein who was decidedly forceful, third on the Portuguese track. Especially since Harrison Scott, from the United Kingdom was 4th at 0.150” from pole followed by the Dutch driver Jordi Van Moorsel. The new Senior, the Japanese Ukyo Sasahara began to find his new targets as evidenced by his seventh place. There was also a good performance from the French driver Xavier Pozzoli who was much more efficient than before, with a 15th fastest lap which could have been much better with more consistency, so his event looks much more promising. There was an unexpectedly poor performance from the Australian Joseph Mawson, only 30th.

Juniors is also going pretty well for Team France with 13th for Anthony Fotia and Thomas Lawrence in 18th. Pole went to the Portuguese driver Bruno Borlido who was well detached from Harry Webb, a favorite British driver, with a time of 1’02” 157 which was 0.159” better than second place.

Info Kartcom with Kartlink / © Photo Rotax BRP