Looking down on the start at Alcaniz (Pic: press.net images)
The first of two rounds of the European championship of karting, for the KF and the KF Junior categories, has started in Alcaniz, at the Motorland Aragòn, in the Spanish province of Teruel. Today the first results after the free practice which took place in the two previous days.
In KF, Sorensen sets the best time.
The pole position, surprisingly, was clinched by the Danish Christian Sorensen (Tony Kart-Vortex-Vega): on the 1,671 metres of the circuit in Aragon, he stopped the clock at 58”549, just 2 hundredths of a second faster than the English Ben Barnicoat (ART GP-TM-Vega), who placed second. The Kosmic team is in close pursue of the two fastest drivers thanks to the young and promising Danish driver Nicklas Nielsen and the experienced French Armand Convers (both on Kosmic-Vortex-Vega), 3th and 4th respectively and about one tenth of a second slower. The performance of the Dutch driver Max Verstappen – who won the KZ1 WSK Euros Series in Genk (B) two weeks ago – is outstanding: here, in Alcaniz, he has changed category but his skills remain the same. He has raced in KF and has immediately set the fifth time. In this initial phase, on the other hand, Dorian Boccolacci – the recent winner of the KF category of the WSK Euro Series – had some troubles. The French did not get what he expected in qualifying and only managed to place 22nd. At the end of the day, Barnicoat and Verstappen achieved their first partial successes, while Boccolacci managed to recover and placed fourth. These results say it all: tomorrow’s heats are going to be fought inch by inch.
Norris confirms his leadership in the KF Junior
Lando Norris (FA Kart-Vortex-Le Cont), the tiny and winning Londoner, confirms his leadership in the KF Junior category – he had already won the category in the WSK Euro Series -. Norris stopped the clock at 1’00”728, 129 thousandths of a second faster than the new German talent David Beckmann (Zanardi-BMB-Le Cont), who set the second fastest time. Also the Italian Lorenzo Travisanutto (Tony Kart-Vortex-Le Cont) is improving fast: he set the third time just ahead of the surprising Swedish Noah Milell (Exprit-Vortex-Le Cont). Both of them can aim at victory. Norris raced well in the first heats of today and won one of the three heats on schedule. More surprises in the remaining two heats, won by the American Logan Sargeant (Tony Kart-Vortex-Le Cont) and by Sasakorn Chaimongkol (Kosmic-TM-Le Cont), a driver from Thailand but holder of a British license. It is hard, after these results, to make previsions for tomorrow’s qualifying phase. Twenty heats are on schedule tomorrow in both the categories.
