Martinelli from Macerata shines in San Marino
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13/06/2022 – Great performance by the Macerata driver Samuele Martinelli, who in his Renault Clio (of Proline for the Asd GR Motorsport of Medesano – Parma) and sailed by Nicolò Micheletti, won his R3 class in the RC4N Group , but the even more surprising result was the 9th place overall, in a tough race due to the heat and which saw 50 crews at the start with the presence of foreign drivers. All this despite various physical and technical problems, which conditioned him over the weekend, where he had already proved competitive in the shakedown on Saturday with 4 passes where he had scored the best in class compared to the other 2 Clio, that of San Marino Munaroni-De Luca and that of the Italian crew made up of Lorenzo and Stefano Costi, while the Honda Civic Type R of the Germans W. Irlacher and J. Lerch, fourth car in the R3 category, did not carry out the test.
It is in the race that the Macerata driver overtook himself by taking command of the actions, a nice margin and then defending him in the final with tire wear problems, finishing well ahead of Irlacher and with Munaroni far behind. Martinelli finished 2’492 “behind the winner of the 21st Rally Bianco Azzurro, organized by Scuderia San Marino, won by the home driver and the same team Alessio Pisi, paired with Daniele Conti on Skoda Fabia R5, who awarded in addition to the absolute class R2. Pisi closed with a time of 27’02 “behind Jader Vagnini and Elisabetta Franchina (Skoda Fabia (R5) by only 6 tenths). On the third step of the absolute podium went Paolo Segantini with Davide Castiglioni (Skoda Fabia R5), while the Latvian driver Nikolay Gryazin (Peugeot 208 Rally) is ranked 4th, with Pietro Penserini (Renault Clio 1.6) who completed the “Top5”.
“The race had been well prepared for about a month and everything possible was done to run it – says the driver from Macerata – also based on my work, because I risked skipping it for these reasons and I made a thousand sacrifices to race, because I wanted to compete in the Rally Bianco Azzurro. The night before I was not very well due to a slight intestinal virus, which I brought with me from home and on Saturday evening I also had a fever. Sunday morning I fell and I was weak and I wanted not to compete for how I felt. We were about to leave, then in the end I thought, let’s try, let’s do a To-up then let’s see how I am and at the very least I retire. Not starting meant throwing away the possibilities that were there, even if few, to be able to do a good race. So, we decided to leave after the first stage I was already a bit tired, but the time trial I had made stimulated me to go on. So we decided to give in. ” .
“It was a very painful race from the physical side for me – continues Martinelli – and I made great efforts, while from the outside the times spoke of a good race. We also had small technical problems, such as a burnt candle, some gaps in petrol. new hard ones in front which, evidently for that type of asphalt and those temperatures, were not enough for me to do the rest of the race.My budget did not allow me a good margin from the others and we decided to continue but the risks were big, in fact at the 3rd Ps “La casa” we made a straight on a hairpin bend where, at the same speed as the previous passages, the tires didn’t hold up, the car didn’t even try to swerve on dirt and we ended up outside. is spent and to restart with ignition and maneuver, we lost between 10 and 12 seconds, luckily nothing mechanical had happened to the car. reziosi to keep the 8th place overall, where instead we slipped one position. A precious margin for maintaining an extra position. Given how the whole weekend went, I know details, but if one wants to consider everything, then that the final balance was still beyond all expectations is a fact. Even my Proline mechanics were surprised and Andrea himself told me that he had prepared a set-up for an average driver and for the asphalt, so much so that he had a good approach with this car, which is demanding and with a lot of horsepower. so the set-up was not to be able to dare the maximum. It went well this way, it may be that with a more aggressive solution I would not have found myself there and risked more, but he too did not expect this performance, otherwise he dared more “.
“Along the 10 km, narrow and winding of the third stage, with more than 25 hairpin bends, the cars were put to the test – concludes Martinelli -. A path that greatly stressed the car and above all the insertion of the front, to which was the one that penalized us, but hearing about everyone was penalized and many ended up off the road and thrown into the third stage “La Casa” and complained that grandfather overtook to keep the car on the hairpin bends and turn it ” .
The 2022 season had started badly for the driver from Macerata with the retirement in the shakedown of the Rally della Valle del Tevere in February, then there was a crescendo of three consecutive class wins, respectively with the Circuit of Champions in San Marino, at 1st. Rally Città di Foligno and this at the Rally Bianco Azzurro again in San Marino with a splendid 10th place overall.