WSK Euro Series, Round 2
The winners in Portimao (Italy) for the second round of the WSK Euro Series on April 17 were De Vries (NL – Zanardi-Parilla KF1), Lammers (NL – Intrepid-TM KZ1), Johansson (S – Energy-TM KZ2), Abreu (P – Tony Kart-Vortex KF2) and Verstappen (NL – CRG-Parilla KF3).
press release
A lively day with the WSK Finals in Portimao. A sudden sprinkle of rain in the morning made things more difficult for the 213 drivers competing on the Circuito Internacional do Algarve in Portimao (P), in the 2nd WSK Euro Karting Series consisting of 4 rounds. With the track dried off in the afternoon, the decisive duels of the Portuguese weekend took place in the Finals.
Above: De Vries gets a push from Bailly
Nick De Vries calls the shots in KF1. Nyck De Vries (Zanardi-Parilla-Vega) held in his hands not only today’s Final 2 but the whole weekend in Portimao. After winning in the KF1 preliminary phases in the past days and achieving yesterday afternoon’s Final 1 at last, the Dutchman set matters straight from the start by sprinting and moving into an early unassailable lead today in Final 2. Less definite was instead the fight for the remaining places on the podium: at first, it was Czech Libor Toman (Birel-BMB-Vega) to be second but Belgian Sébastien Bailly (Kosmic-Vortex-Vega) took over when he was forced to stop, due to a touch with French Alex Baron (Sodi-Parilla-Vega). Czech Republic counter-charged then with Zednek Groman that passing Roman Flavio Camponeschi (Tony Kart-Vortex-Vega) mounted the podium below his teammate Bailly.
Bas Lammers’ winning reply in KZ1 while Joel Johansson wins in KZ2. Dutch Bas Lammers (Intrepid-TM-Dunlop) gave his personal answer to the winner in yesterday’s Final 1 Belgian Jonathan Thonon (CRG-Maxter-Dunlop). At the start, the driver from Gravendeel sprang forward faster than Italian Roberto Toninelli (Lenzo-TM-Dunlop) that was next to him in the starting grid. Closing on Lammers afterwards, French Arnaud Kozlinski (CRG-Maxter-Dunlop) attempted to the leadership but he failed to reach a useful position for launching his attack. The Dutchman was good in keeping a safe distance and finished as winner undisputed ahead of Kozlinski; whereas Belgian Yannick De Brabander (Parolin-TM-Dunlop) recovered and achieved the third place after a duel against Italian Marco Ardigò (Tony Kart-Vortex-Dunlop). At first, Sienese Mirko Torsellini (CRG-Maxter-Dunlop) was at the top of KZ2 separate ranking but he then stopped due to a touch in the race. Therefore, Swedish Joel Johansson (Energy-Tm-Dunlop) took over the leadership and finished ahead of Brasilian Felipe Fraga (CRG-Maxter-Dunlop) and Czech Martin Doubek (Tony Kart-Vortex-Dunlop).
Above: Lammers leads Torsellini in KZ1
Francisco Abreu beats even the unexpected in KF2. He competed and deservedly won on his home circuit. The sixteen driver from Madeira (P), Francisco Abreu (Tony Kart-Vortex-Vega) leaded throughout KF2 Final but he achieved victory only making up 4’’ penalty handed out for the starting procedure. The following drivers Roman Damiano Fioravanti (Tony Kart-Vortex-Vega) and Swedish Sami Luka (Energy-TM-Vega) missed this favourable chance: challenging for a possible win, the two touched each other and lost much ground. Pushing a lot to make the penalty up Abreu was successful only in the concluding laps. Danish Kevin Rossel (RK-BMB-Vega) and Lasse Sorensen (Birel-BMB-Vega) mounted the podium behind him.
Max Vesrtappen’s supremacy comes up again in KF3. Dutch Max Verstappen (CRG-Parilla-Vega) is back and victorious, seeing that he early took the lead and won the Final in Portimao. Actually, there was no opportunity to duel against Calabrian Antonio Fuoco (Top Kart-Vortex-Vega) that starting in first row like Verstappen, was penalized with ten seconds for not regular start. Therefore, Norwegian Dennis Olsen (Energy-TM-Vega) achieved the second place ahead of Danish Nicolai Sylvest (Tony Kart-Vortex-Vega).
