24th July 2011

Victories in Spain for De Vries and Albon - from the CIK-FIA

British driver Alex Albon was victorious in the second final of the day. Pic: CIK-FIA

The second round of the KF1 World Championship held on the Spanish circuit of Zuera once again confirmed the talent of Nyck De Vries (Zanardi-Parilla). Clinching pole position and winner of the 1^st race having led up front for most of the time, the Dutchman had to start out from the back of the pack for the second race of the day as his kart had refused to start during the warm-up lap. Carrying out a brilliant overtaking performance Nyck climbed back up into fourth place by the end of the race, having for a few hundred meters found himself up in second spot during the final lap. However the Dutchman was excluded from the second race for having received assistance from a mechanic on the staring grid, an unauthorised operation.

If on the one hand De Vries impressed the spectators with his brilliant climb-up through the pack, the name of another young driver was also on everyone lips at Zuera. Having won the World Cup and European Championship in KF3 (the Juniors category) last year, the Brit Alex Albon (Intrepid-TM) took full advantage of his Dutch rivals problems to grab his first world victory in the top karting category. Second during the practice sessions and second in the first race, the young protégé of the renowned energy drink which gives one wings, was back in form for the championship, where he presently holds 3^rd place.

Already in brilliant form during the opening round at Wackersdord, Karol Basz (RK-BMB) also experienced a pretty positive Saturday. Fourth in the first race, he held off the attack put in by De Vries in the final lap of the second race to clinch third place. This allowed the Polish driver to retain his provisional second place in the championship.

Third in the first race the Italian Ignazio D’Agosto (Tony Kart-Vortex) then fell back, leaving all the podium honours to his team-mate Flavio Camponeschi, second in the second race having taken full advantage during the final lap of the battle between Basz and De Vries. Amongst the top performers of the day we must mention the two top-5s of Felice Tiene (CRG-Maxter) as also the 7^th and 6^th places of the young Frenchman Rémy Deguffroy (Tony Kart-Vortex). Last but not least, having twice finished in 8^th position the young Czech female Tereza Gromanova (Kosmic-Vortex) proved that the karting domain is not purely reserved for boys.

European Championship KF2 and KF3: the finalists are known

The Spanish Zuera circuit was also the scene of the European Championship KF2 and KF3 (the Juniors), to be held over one single race (the Final) on Sunday afternoon. But prior to taking on this decisive race the young contenders needed to clinch one of the 34 tickets allocated to the finalists …

Might a Thai become Champion of Europe? Competing with an Irish licence Tanart Sathientirakul (Tony Kart-TM) managed to clinch pole position for the Pre-Final (which in itself also determines the starting grid for the Final) after the qualifying sessions. Other strong contenders in these qualifying sessions were the Belgian Sami Luka (Energy-TM), the Russian Egor Orudshev (Tony Kart-Vortex), the Spaniard Carlos Gil (Tony Kart-Vortex) and the Frenchman Pascal Belmaaziz (DR-Parilla). Fastest in these sessions was the Italian Gianmarco Ercoli (Tony Kart-Vortex) who unfortunately experienced less luck during the rounds: he will only be in 16^th place on the grid for the Pre-Final.

In KF3, it was the Norwegian Dennis Olsen (Energy-TM) who headed up the qualifying rounds– ensuring himself the pole spot for the Pre-Final – ahead of the Dutchman Max Verstappen (CRG-Parilla), who had climbed up brilliantly from 32^nd place during the practice sessions, the Swede Robin Hansson (Energy-TM) and the two British drivers Bradley Shaw (Tony Kart-TM) and Harrison Scott (Intrepid-TM). Best time in qualifying the Dane Lasse Sorensen (Birel-BMB) dropped back to 11^th place following these qualifying runs.