Lonato del Garda (Brescia, Italy). After nearly three days spent running free practice, the European Championship has given its first verdicts in qualifying held on Friday afternoon at the South Garda Karting circuit in Lonato during the “Kart Grand Prix Italy”.

The professional KZ drivers and the emerging talents of KZ2 made it to the track to battle their titles out, after the opening race held in Salbris (France), while the youngsters of the Academy Trophy will contest their second round before the closer that will be held in Genk (Belgium) next September.

In KZ, the single session valid for the pole position saw a very hard-fought duel involving all the champions present at this event. A stunning Francesco Celenta (Praga-Tm) had the upper hand and posted the pole position time in 45.624s, that was 0.055s quicker than the time set by the Dutch driver Marijn Kremers (BirelArt-Tm), and 0.056s than Jorrit Pex’s time (CRG-Tm), as the latter is second in the Championship’s standings, only one point shy of Jeremy Iglesias (Formula K-Tm), who was ninth today. The other top positions went to Mirko Torsellini (KR-Iame), who was fourth 0.062s from the top, Rick Dreezen (BirelArt-Tm) was fifth at 0.091s and Paolo De Conto (CRG-Tm) sixth at 0.104s. The seven and eighth quickest time went to Fabian Federer (CRG-Tm) and Noah Milell (Tony Kart-Vortex), as Simo Puhakka (Tony Kart-Vortex) ended within the top ten, while the other title contender Marco Ardigò, posted the 12th time ending up 0.164s off the pace.

The fastest times in KZ2 were set by the French Emilien Denner (Kalì-Kart-Tm) in the first session in 45.770s, which was the fastest time overall, while the Italian Giuseppe Palomba (Intrepid-Tm) went quickest in the second session posting a 45.860s and Riccardo Longhi (BirelArt-Tm) topped the charts in the third series with a laptime of 45.793s. Classification leader from France Adrien Renaudin (Sodikart) posted the fourth time in the third session (45.976s).

In the Academy Trophy, that is the Exprit-Vortex single make trophy, 47 drivers chosen from their National Federations reached Lonato from 40 different Countries. The fastest time was posted by the French Sami Meguetounif, who led the Italian Federico Albanese by 0.006s only, while the South African Joshua Coertze was third.

The racing program will continue on Saturday July 14th with qualifying heats that will enjoy live Streaming. Further heats will follow on Sunday July 15th, while Finals will begin at local 13:20.

THE COMPLETE PROGRAM IN LONATO

CIK-FIA European KZ & KZ2 Championships, CIK-FIA Karting Academy Trophy

Saturday, July 14th, 2018: Warm-up at 9:00-10:25; Qualifying heats at 10:30-12:25 and

13:30-17:25.

Sunday, July 15th, 2018: Warm-up at 8:25-9:50; Qualifying heats at 9:55-11:50. Finalist

presentation at 13:00. Finals: 13.20 (KZ2); 14:25 (Academy); 15:25 (KZ).

Tickets: regular Euros 10, reduced Euros 8.

All results, Live Timing and Live TV will be available at www.cikfia.com

South Garda Karting

Press Office
13.07.2018
www.southgardakarting.it