The sixth round from the 2012 ICC Hillclimb and Sprint Championship held earlier this month saw an entry field of 51 drivers, all vying for the honours at the technically challenging street circuit in Mtaħleb.
After four runs, it was 25-year-old Fabio Baldacchino, in his striking Satariano Properties OMS, who clocked the best time of the day – 53.340secs.
At first, it was defending champion Hubert Camilleri who led the way followed by Matthew Zammit and Alan Curmi in that order.
Many thought the battle for the honours was reserved for these three drivers but things changed dramatically after the third and fourth runs as Baldacchino suddenly came to the fore, going on to top the leaderboard at the end of the day.
Like Baldacchino, Mark Micallef also left it late as he marked his first podium finish with a remarkable time of 53.736sec in his Group 5 Auto-Trader Malta Radical Prosport.
Third position went to Zach Zammit (Urban Jungle Ralt) who did remarkably well despite having to deal with engine trouble.
Zammit sped uphill in 54.219sec, narrowly outpacing Zammit in fourth place by a miniscule 16 hundredths of a second.
Curmi had to settle for fifth place while Camilleri slipped to sixth.
Camilleri, who holds the record time at Mtaħleb, was involved in a minor crash at a tight hairpin, half-way up the hill.
His crew got him back behind the wheel in no small time and he succeeded in completing his fourth run but to no avail.
Action at Mtaħleb was not only reserved to single-seaters alone as the top saloon cars got engaged in a tense competition, many of them improving personal best times for the circuit.
The honours for fastest four-wheel drive cars again went to the promising David Galea who steered his Subaru Impreza to Group 2 victory and an outstanding 11th place overall.
Galea outpaced Anthony Bernard (Mitsubishi) by nearly three tenths of a second.
In the front-wheel drive series, Didier Bugeja (Peugeot) placed first ahead of Etienne Grech (Citroen) and Jeremy Cassar (Golf).
The championship will now observe a break. Races will resume in September.