World Championships, Day 2: De Vries Untouchable
from CIK/FIA website
Nyck De Vries (Zanardi/Parilla) took maximum championship points from the week-end. Sunday’s races wins looked easy but both called for his racing nerve to be held. In Race 3 a great dice between Karol Basz (RK/BMB) 2nd and Sébastien Bailly (Kosmic/Vortex) 3rd gave the Champion breathing
space as he drove to victory by more than 3 seconds.
The reigning World Champion started Race 4 from pole position but was boxed in at 5th place on turn 2 and needed a mature racing brain to stay out of trouble. As soon as gaps appeared, he made his way forward and by the 3rd lap he was in front never to be headed again. Karol Basz again appeared to be a strong challenger but a contact late in the race dropped him down to 8th. Sébastien Bailly was again in the thick of things and a determined drive took him to the head of the chasing pack and a deserved 2nd place. Flavio Camponeschi (Tony Kart/Vortex) and Alex Albon (Intrepid/TM) were two of the drivers to benefit from the Karol Basz misfortune and the Italian took 3rd place ahead of the British driver. Tereza Gromanova (Kosmic/Vortex) was an excellent 7th and can lay claim to being the top lady driver presently in world karting.
KZ1: De Conto European Championship
Paolo De Conto (Energy/TM) followed his 2010 European Championship in KZ2 with a champion’s display in KZ1 in 2011. He was an easy winner of the Prefinal and soon jumped into a big lead in the Final. Approaching half-way, Marco Ardigo (Tony Kart/Vortex) was closing in but on the 14th lap the former double World Champion retired with a deflated tyre. Jonathan Thonon (CRG/Maxter) followed him out for the same reason on the next lap. De Conto took a comfortable victory over Yannick De Brabander (Parolin/TM) whilst Armand Convers (Kosmic/Vortex) just hung on to 3rd place, a whisker in front of Jérémy Iglésias (Intrepid/TM). But Paolo De Conto is a worthy champion suffering only one defeat in only one Qualifying Heat and that by just 0.009 of a second.
KZ2: First European crown for Fabian Federer
Fabian Federer (CRG/TM) scored a comfortable 2 second victory over battling Swede Joel Johansson (Energy/TM) with Mirko Torsellini (CRG/Maxter) 3rd. Federer dominated throughout the Final after over hauling polesitter Henri Kokko (Ninar/TM). Torsellini was unbeaten throughout the Qualifying Heats and 3rd place in the Final was no more than he deserved. Johansson had also battled adversity and was a worthy vice-champion, but Fabian Federer was in no mood to relinquish his grip once he got in front.
- Chris Walker of kartpix.net has posted a number of photos to his twitpic account HERE.
- Access to results via the CIK-FIA website HERE.
