The ROK Cup Italia’s fourth round of the season at South Garda Karting in Lonato del Garda (BS) was held with nearly 200 drivers competing across seven categories.

At the end of the weekend, the following championship leaders emerged: Milan Romano De Ruit (Mini ROK U10), Ghazi Almekdad (Mini ROK), Blazej Kostrzewa (Junior ROK), Riccardo Salemi (Senior ROK), Alessandro Viganò (Expert ROK), Giuseppe Gaglianò (Super ROK), and Marco Chiarello (Shifter ROK).

Mini ROK U10
The Mini ROK U10 race was once again decided by a matter of thousandths of a second.

In a hard-fought qualifying session, Milan De Ruit secured the pole position with a time of 55.335 seconds. Leon Giudicelli is second, 0.024 seconds behind the Dutch driver, followed by Gabriel Mara Varon in third and Miguel Spina in fourth. Antonio Mastroianni is fifth, ahead of Broderick Brown, Anna Makolm, Gilberto Reggiani, Mikhail Zanochkin, and Enrico Ticianelli. The standings continue with Elias Kaya, Ludovico Maietti, Zev Godschalk, Nicolò Zagatti, Konstantin Kaczmarczyk, Oleksandr Dubinin, Radoslaw Czernicki, Nelson Luis Cabrera Mondello, Alexander Ressler, Pietro Cimieri, Pietro Zera, and Alessio Angotta.

In the pre-final, De Ruit leads in the opening stages of the race, but at the end of the first lap, Giudicelli overtakes him. The two, along with Mara Varon and Spina, remain in close contact throughout the race, with a single position swap between Spina and Mara Varon during the fifth lap. The checkered flag sealed the victory for Giudicelli, who crossed the finish line ahead of De Ruit in second, Spina in third, and Mara Varon in fourth. Brown, Ticianelli, Makolm, Godschalk, Mastroianni, and Zanochkin finished in the positions immediately following.

In the final, Giudicelli made the most of his pole position to immediately take the lead, while De Ruit was overtaken by Brown and Spina. However, in the following stages, race control put a “slow” period due to an incident at the back of the field, which regrouped the field. At the restart, Giudicelli was still in front, with De Ruit managing to reclaim second place. The two battled for the win, with De Ruit taking the lead on the eighth lap. The race ended with De Ruit in first place, ahead of Giudicelli in second, by a mere 0.071 seconds. Spina claimed the lowest step of the podium, followed by Brown, Godschalk, Makolm, Reggiani, Zanochkin, Kaya, and Mastroianni.

Mini ROK
The Mini ROK crowned a new season winner at Lonato del Garda.

For the first time this season, Sebastian Schirripa claimed pole position. The Italian, with a time of 54.216 seconds, finished ahead of Mathias Drexler in second, Matteo Meni in third, and championship leader Ghazi Almekdad in fourth. Matteo Gei and Pawel Markowski are fifth and sixth, respectively, while behind them are Leo Kralev in seventh, Aleksander Pelikanski in eighth, Giorgio Sapignoli in ninth, and Samuel Dal Pozzo in tenth. Filippo Frigerio, in eleventh place, is ahead of Mattia Pellin, Ghjulian Letailleur, Francesco Petta, Thomas Ometto, Raoul Capuozzo, Emma Gatto, Nicolas Yerly, Lola Mukhammadiyev, Timothee Moulin, Michal Lepczynski, Johannes Buchhammer, Piotr Mikolajczyk, Antoni Brokos, Rossi Yau, Nicholas Bertolani, Antonio Martin, William Morta, Nico Fardin, Dorian Bazzoli, Riccardo Gileppa, Giovanni Pasini, Paul Plattner-Geramb, and Iker Castro.

In the pre-final, Schirripa leads ahead of Meni, Gei, and Kralev. However, Almekdad emerges in the early stages, moving up to third place at the end of the opening lap and taking the lead shortly thereafter. Pelikanski also makes his way up, catching the leader around the midpoint of the race. On the sixth lap, Pelikanski takes the lead and, defending it resolutely, beats Almekdad in the sprint by just 0.010 seconds. Drexler is third, followed by Kralev in fourth, Frigerio in fifth, and Schirripa in sixth. Further back are Pellin, Gei, Meni, and Sapignoli.

In the final, Pelikanski maintained the lead after the start, with Drexler, Frigerio, and Almekdad leading the chasing pack. The situation remained largely unchanged until the sixth lap, when Drexler overtook Pelikanski; the latter, however, immediately retaliated, while Almekdad took advantage to move up to second place. The battle among the top four also allowed Kralev, Meni, Markowski, Pellin, Petta, and Buchhammer to join the fight for the lead. In the final laps, Pelikanski managed to pull away from his rivals and thus secured the victory. Kralev and Frigerio finished second and third, respectively, ahead of Almekdad, Drexler, Pellin, Buchhammer, Markowski, Petta, and Meni, who rounded out the top 10.

Junior ROK
A post-race twist decided the outcome of the Junior ROK race.

In qualifying, Tommaso Mottarelli set the fastest time of 49.281 seconds in Group 2. David Moscardi, the fastest in Group 1, qualified second, while Marco Pozzoni, just two thousandths of a second behind Mottarelli, was third. Championship leader Blazej Kostrzewa is fourth, ahead of Kacper Kluk in fifth, Max Mangano in sixth, and Iven Ammann, winner of the previous round, in seventh. Stanisław Grabowski, Ilias Mitaki, and Borys Blaszczyk round out the top 10, ahead of Mikolaj Gawlikowski, Karol Kostur, Leonardo De Grandi, Adrian Potepa, Michal Zajac, Vasco De Vito, Emma Boschetto, Leonard Wcislo, Lourenco Miguel Vilao Amaro, Elias Boullier, Tommaso Pomoni, Gabriele Castelmani, Simone Seveso, Alex Volkmer, Tiberius Muller, Jan Perel, Mia Zanki, Fabio Angotta, Valerio Santini, Mateusz Perel, Lena Pichler, Carlo Pongratz, Jessica Calleja, Sebastian Margaritis, Leonard Utsch, José Di Blasio, Aleardo Lambo, Simone Mercati, Rudy Koka, Daniel Ivanov, Louis Pachleitner, and Benicio Abdalla Durans Pires Leal.

At the end of the qualifying heats, the category leader changes: with two wins, Kostrzewa moves into first place, while Kluk, with two second-place finishes, sits behind him. Moscardi is third, with one win, followed by Pozzoni and Ammann, in fourth and fifth place, respectively. Potepa moves up to sixth place, while Mottarelli drops to seventh. Mitaki, Grabowski, and Blaszczyk occupy the final three spots in the top 10.

In the final, Kostrzewa gets off to a good start and maintains the lead, ahead of Moscardi and Ammann. By the second lap, however, Moscardi takes the lead, while Potepa moves into third place, followed by Pozzoni, Ammann, and Kluk. On the fifth lap, Kostrzewa tries to reclaim the lead from Moscardi, but Potepa capitalizes on the move, taking the lead. Shortly after, Moscardi was forced to retire due to a technical issue. The battle for the win was thus reduced to four drivers: Kostrzewa, Potepa, Ammann, and Pozzoni. On the final lap, Potepa led and crossed the finish line first, but a three-second penalty for obstructing Kostrzewa on the fourth lap handed the victory to the latter, with Ammann second and Pozzoni third. Mitaki finished fourth, while Potepa was demoted to fifth. De Grandi, Kluk, Blaszczyk, Mottarelli, and Zajac followed.

Senior ROK
The Senior ROK class saw a clear standout performer throughout the weekend.

Riccardo Salemi claimed his third pole position of the season. The championship leader, first in Group 1 with a time of 47.695 seconds, finished ahead of Simone Taccola, the fastest in Group 2 and second in the combined standings. Riccardo Brangero and Christian Romeo were third and fourth, respectively, ahead of Colin Wazny in fifth, Andrea Barbieri in sixth, and Mattia D’Erme in seventh. Ryan Carrè is eighth, followed by Nik Sculac in ninth and Andrea Ladina in tenth. The standings continue with Leonardo Monzani, Oskar Hildebranski, Samuele Di Filippo, Stefano Zamponi, Anh Tu Ranghetti, Christos Chatzis, Plamen Teliyski, Alan Jakóbiak, Aleksander Rogowski, Enrico Pietro Villa, Elia Galvanin, Oguz Marangoz, Luca Perelli, Giovanni Polato, Ludovica Miceli, Ewa Banach, Enzo Vidmontiene, Francesca Pietrini, Valerio De Gaetano, Natala Kostur, Piotr Protasiewicz, Rikardo Bakaj, Tommaso Curione, Alessandro Cocchi, Zhivko Bostandzhiev, Luca Baggioli, Sebastiano Cecchini, Denis Todorov, Noemi Pradier, Michal Czyzewicz, Zeynep Cukurova, Jakub Kazana, Mattia Gioele Mantisi, and Edoardo Merlini.

With the qualifying heats complete, Salemi remains in the lead of the interim standings thanks to a win and a second-place finish. Wazny wins the first elimination heat, but his fourth-place finish in the second places him behind the leader. Romeo is third, followed by Taccola in fourth, Brangero in fifth, and D’Erme in sixth. Hildebranski and Jakóbiak move up to seventh and eighth place, respectively, with Ladina ninth and Chatzis tenth.

In the final, Salemi got off to another strong start, followed by the Romeo-Brangero duo. The race, however, was neutralized with a “slow” flag due to an incident at the back of the pack. At the restart, Salemi remained in the lead ahead of Brangero, while Hildebranski surprised Romeo and took third place for the time being. For the remainder of the final, Salemi perfectly managed his lead over Brangero and secured his third victory of the season. Romeo managed to climb back up to third place, finishing ahead of Wazny in fourth and Hildebranski, who dropped to fifth. Taccola, Barbieri, Jakóbiak, Monzani, and D’Erme rounded out the top 10.

Expert ROK
The fourth round of the Expert ROK series ended with a surprise result in the final.

Following his victory at Franciacorta, Marco Massironi once again emerged as the driver to beat at Lonato del Garda. The Italian set the fastest lap time of 48.731 seconds, ahead of Michele Zampieri in second, Paolo Baselli in third, and Adrian Marcinkiewicz in fourth. Championship leader Alessandro Viganò is fifth, ahead of Luca Molinari in sixth, Marco Nannavecchia in seventh, and Daniel Zajac in eighth. Jorge Rodolfo Matos Bedoya and Gianluca Todeschini round out the top 10, followed by Cristian Gautier, Marco Beretta, Andrea Sorbello, and Tino Donadei.

In the pre-final, Massironi and Zampieri were neck and neck at the start, but the pole sitter got the better of him right at the first corner. Behind them, Marcinkiewicz overtook Baselli and moved into third place. After the first few laps, Massironi showed superior pace, and while Zampieri was busy defending against Marcinkiewicz’s attacks, he pulled away from the chasing pack and cruised unchallenged to victory. Zampieri finished second, with Marcinkiewicz third and Baselli fourth. Sorbello, in fifth, finished ahead of Viganò, who was sixth. Nannavecchia, Donadei, Molinari, and Todeschini followed in that order.

In the final, Massironi and Zampieri were once again side by side at the start, with Sorbello making an excellent start that allowed him to move up to third place. On the second lap, Zampieri launched an attack on Massironi and took the lead, with Sorbello taking advantage to move into second place. On the next lap, Sorbello passed Zampieri, who was then forced to cede third place to Viganò. For the remainder of the race, Sorbello maintained his lead over the chasing pack and secured the victory, ahead of Viganò and Zampieri, who finished second and third, respectively. Marcinkiewicz, in fourth, crossed the finish line ahead of Massironi, fifth, and Baselli, sixth. Zajac, Matos Bedoya, Donadei, and Nannavecchia round out the top 10.

Super ROK
During the Super ROK weekend, one name stood out above all others.

Lucas Bonhomme returned to pole position, setting the fastest qualifying time of 47.419 seconds. Federico Zanetti is second, ahead of Giulio Mazzolini in third, championship leader Giuseppe Gaglianò in fourth, and Daniele Galbiati in fifth. Nicholas Reino is sixth, followed by Mattia D’Abramo in seventh, Matteo Peruccio in eighth, Manuel Gritti in ninth, and Nicolò Coppotelli in tenth. Next in the standings are Alex Laghezza, Matteo Lazzarotto, Nikola Nikolic, Vittorio Maria Russo, Francesco Koci, Alex Desario, Mirko Graziani, Matteo Infantino, Shai Derungs, Pietro Mondin, Riccardo Chiodo, Alberto Masotto, Lorenzo Poletti, Fabio Silvestri, Nicola Marini, Chiara Bolognini, Tommaso Scarato, Matteo Bellandi, Andrea Saporiti, Giuseppe Palladino, and Samuele Rizza.

In the pre-final, Bonhomme maintained the lead, with Mazzolini overtaking Zanetti for second place. However, in the following laps, Gaglianò emerged as the primary challenger, the only one capable of keeping pace with the leader. Bonhomme, however, managed the race with ease and crossed the finish line first, 0.782 seconds ahead of Gaglianò in second. Mazzolini was third, ahead of Galbiati in fourth and Zanetti, who had dropped to fifth. They were followed in order by D’Abramo, Reino, Peruccio, Coppotelli, and Laghezza.

In the final, once again it was Bonhomme, starting from pole position, who took the lead, with Mazzolini initially in second before yielding the position to Gaglianò. The Frenchman managed the race without difficulty and, replicating his performance in the pre-final, kept his pursuers at bay until the checkered flag, securing his second victory of the championship. Gaglianò took second place, while Mazzolini claimed the lowest step of the podium. Zanetti, D’Abramo, and Galbiati finished ahead of Desario, Mondin, Russo, and Laghezza.

Shifter ROK
One name dominated the Shifter ROK category all weekend.

No one managed to trouble Marco Chiarello in qualifying. The Italian once again claimed pole position with a time of 46.623 seconds, ahead of Gabriele Bensi in second and Mattia Rossetti in third. Pietro Camerlengo was fourth, ahead of Tymoteusz Ksidz in fifth, Alessandro Merigo in sixth, Riccardo Franciosi in seventh, and Antonio Lagrotteria in eighth. Henry Robert Pozo Bonilla, Alessandro Risi, Mateo Moni, and Mauro Guidetti follow in the standings.

In the pre-final, Chiarello got off to the best start when the lights went out and immediately took the lead, with Bensi in second place and Ksidz moving up to third. The leader set his own pace right from the start, with Bensi trying to stay on his tail in the early laps. As the laps went by, however, the pole-sitter pulled away from his rival and won unchallenged. Rossetti crossed the finish line in third place, but a three-second penalty for failing to follow the starting procedure dropped him to fifth place, behind Moni in third and Camerlengo in fourth. After initially holding third place, Ksidz finished sixth, ahead of Franciosi, Lagrotteria, Pozo Bonilla, and Risi.

In the final, Chiarello and Bensi were once again out front after the start, with Camerlengo and Ksidz getting off to a quicker start than Moni. As in the pre-final, Chiarello set his own pace and built a significant lead over Bensi, allowing him to easily win the race. Moni recovered third place and claimed the lowest step of the podium, with Camerlengo, Ksidz, and Rossetti behind him. Pozo Bonilla, Franciosi, and Lagrotteria also completed the scheduled sixteen laps.

 Press Release © OTK Kart Group