As the first Friday of racing by WSK Promotion comes to an end, the Champions Cup delivered us the names of the first pole sitters of 2020 as well as the first provisional leaders after the first the Qualifying Heats.

In his first ever OK race, Andrea Kimi Antonelli (KR / IAME) got his first pole position in the category ahead of Taylor Barnard (KR / IAME) and Nikita Bedrin (Tony Kart / Vortex). In OKJ it was still an Italian to tick it, as Brando Badoer (KR / IAME) preceded Tymoteusz Kucharczyk (RK / TM Racing) and Artem Severiukhin (Tony Kart / Vortex). Maciej Gladysz (Parolin / TM Racing) led a whole Parolin trio in the 60 Mini followed by Anatoly Khavalkin (Parolin / TM Racing) and Rene Lammers (Parolin / TM Racing).

OK: Antonelli off to a grat start

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After leading both free practice sessions in the morning, Andrea Kimi Antonelli kept his form in the Qualifying Practice held in the early afternoon under a slightly overcast sky but on a perfectly dry asphalt.

In the first of two series in which the Pole was contested, Antonelli set his best time at the end of his last valid lap, placing himself in front of Nikita Bedrin, slower by over a tenth, and Kirill Smal (Energy Corse / TM Racing) . In the second series, Taylor Barnard, who topped the time-sheet with the time of 48.837 followed by Cristian Comanducci (Tony Kart / TM Racing) and Dilano Vant-Hoff (Exprit / TM Racing), however, couldn't do better than the Italian racing with the same make and settled with the second place.

It was a difficult session instead for Harry Thompson (KR / IAME), who ended last of the second group in the debut race with the colors of the Sauber Karting Team due to a technical problem.

In addition to the Pole Position, Andrea Kimi Antonelli also put his seal on the first of the two Heats that took place after qualifying, taking advantage in part of the brawl that has arisen among the pursuers.

In the second heat, the victory went to Thomas Ten Brinke (Kosmic / Vortex), while Harry Thompson and Josep Maria Martì (KR / IAME) made up for the difficulties met during qualifying by pulling off a comeback of 15 and 10 positions to finish in seventh and tenth place respectively.

OKJ: first pole in OKJ for Brando Badoer

After the first and second positions scored in free practice, Artem Severiukhin seemed to be one of the favorites to grab the Pole together with Arvid Lindblad (KR / IAME) and Tymoteusz Kucharczyk. In the first of the two heats, however, it was Brando Badoer who held off the Russian, followed by the Spanish Bruno Del Pino (FA KART / IAME).

Nobody was able to do better than the Italian in the second group, not even Tymoteusz Kucharczyk who stopped the stopwatch more than a tenth from the time of Brando Badoer preceding Emmo Fittipaldi Jr. (KR / IAME) and Gustaw Wisinewski (Exprit / TM Racing), while Arvid Lindblad couldn't manage to go beyond the fifth position.

As for one of the most anticipated among the rookies of this class, Alex Powell (Energy Corse / Tm Racing) Qualifying ended with the 13th time due to the traffic encountered on the track. It was a difficult session also for Nikola Tsolov (KR / IAME) who finished 23rd in his group.

Once the timed practices were over, the OKJ also got back on track to race the first two Qualifying Heats, won respectively by Arvid Lindblad and Giovanni Trentin (Parolin / TM racing). In the one won by the latter, the Englishman Coskun Irfan (Kosmic / Vortex) was among the protagonists thanks to a 11-places comeback.

MINI: Maciej Gladysz leads the Parolin squad

Although they never appeared at the top of the time-sheets during the morning, Dmitry Matveev and Kirill Dzitiev (Energy Corse / Tm) came to the forefront in the second group of the Qualifying Practice of the 60 Mini but it was not enough against Maciej Gladysz who thus obtained the first Pole Position of the renewed class with the time of 54.494. A time of more than 4 tenths better than that recorded by Anatoly Khavalkin (Parolin / Tm Racing), the best of the first group ahead of Jan Przyrowsky (Parolin / TM Racing) and Bogunovic Aleksandar (Tony Kart / TM Racing). The time set by Rene Lammers was even slower, as he topped the third group followed by the Australian Peter Bouzinelos (KR / IAME) and the French Guillaume Bouzar (Parolin / TM Racing)

In the first of the two heats, Kean Nakamura Berta (KR / IAME) crossed the finish line in first position after overtaking 5 opponents while Rene Lammers ended 25th, after loosing ground due to a contact. Dmitry Matveev confirmed the good performance of qualifying by winning the last heat of the day.

Tomorrow the drivers are set to take to the track again to race all the remainin Qualifying Heats that will define the starting grid for the Pre-Finals.

ph Sportinphoto