Birel ART starts with two wins in a row in Lonato

The new season started well for Birel ART with the well-deserved success of Cristian Bertuca, dou-ble KZ2 winner in Lonato, among other satisfying results. After the WSK Champions Cup, the official team of the Lissone-based brand returned to South Garda Karting the following week for the first round of the WSK Super Master Series.

The new 2023 Birel ART S15 chassis immediately showed an excellent level of competitiveness. The "RR Evo" front braking system proved its efficiency by contributing to the success of the Birel ART drivers in KZ2. The Italian team took the first three places in qualifying in the wake of Daniel Vasile's pole position, and continued its momentum during the heats with six karts in the top 10 on Saturday evening. Alessio Piccini then took a nice victory in Prefinal B. Cristian Bertuca finally ex-tended his domination of the heats with a remarkable performance in the final. Leader of the race from start to finish, he made his mark by once again emerging as the winner of this decisive con-frontation. Pedro Hiltbrand fought for the podium until the last corner, while Vasile and Giuseppe Palomba followed each other in 5th and 6th place. Freddie Slater made a good comeback to finish 9th ahead of Hiltbrand, who was penalised for his loose spoiler, and Piccini who was just outside the top 10. Half of the top 10 were driving in the Birel ART colours.

In OK, Maxens Verbrugge made up 17 places in the final (18th), while Kirill Kutskov showed a very good potential. Gerasim Skulanov had a solid performance in the top 10 of the OK-Junior heats. He came back second in Prefinal B and started from the 4th row of the grid in the final, but lacked suc-cess in the race, as did Kilian Josseron.

Ronni Sala, President of the Birel ART Group, was satisfied with this good start: "I am delighted to see that our work has paid off. The Birel ART 2023 chassis are well born and success has reward-ed our efforts. Congratulations to Cristian Bertuca for his high level performance and his two victo-ries in a row. This is a good sign for the rest of the season. Our attention to detail has paid off. We have chosen to trust young drivers in OK and OK-Junior. They need to gain experience before they can confirm their performance in the next competitions.”