Oscar Piastri 3rd At IAME International Final!
| from Oscar Piastri | 20 October 2014 |
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Sunday 19th October 2014 - The best one yet!
Let me start with the good news! I got 3rd!!!
Today was one of those days that makes me wonder if it was real or not, maybe tomorrow it will sink in.
It started with us discovering that overnight someone had stolen two of my race wheels and tyres!
Above: Me and dad
This meant that I had to find two new rims but more importantly, I would have to use my second new set of tyres in the pre-final instead of the final, not off to a very good start...
I started 21st in the pre-final and got a great start moving up to 16th by turn 3.
That's where things went bad with two drivers crashing right in front of me I couldn't avoid them and hit them pretty hard.
One of the karts was across the front of mine but luckily after a few seconds he was able to drive off my kart allowing me to continue from last place once again.
I drove back to 21st position by the end of the race and had set the fastest lap of the race by a good amount.
Getting a good result in the final from P21 on used tyres was going to be tough.
The final got off to a bad start in the formation laps when the driver behind me drove over the back of my kart and I dragged him along for about 10 meters!
The race wasn't even started and already I was crashing! I hoped he hadn't damaged my rear bumper or exhaust. Anyway, I got a good start at the line and again had made my way to about 15th in the first couple of laps.
The kart was really feeling good and I was able to get into a rhythm and was passing someone almost every lap. At lap 9 there was an incident which resulted in a full track "slow kart" conditions (like a safety car).
This meant the whole field had to lap slowly for 2 laps until the incident was cleared.
Above: The Ideal Kart team (a lot missing)
This was good because I was in 9th position and the leaders were now in reach, but it was also bad because all the drivers I had passed were now right behind me once again.
I was a little bit slow on the restart allowing 2 drivers to pass me at the end of the straight but I managed to pass them again quickly. The kart really came on again and I could see I was catching the leaders.
Over the next 7 laps I made my way to 4th position and on the last lap the driver in 3rd slowed suddenly with some kind of engine problem allowing me to take 3rd with 2 corners to go!
It was a wonderful feeling to get on the podium at such a big event.
I set the fastest lap again in the final, 3 tenths faster than the winner.
I can't help thinking what might have been if I had started further forward.
Anyway, I'm very happy with this result, it's amazing.
I would like to thank the following people:
- Remo and Sabrina Luciani from Remo Racing.
- Frank Cancelli from Kosmic Ideal Kart and the whole Ideal Kart team who made us feel very welcome and provided a very professional and well organized team.
- My team mate Lucas Legeret who won the B Final after some terrible luck in the heats meant he missed the A Final by 1 point.
- IAME, for the great event and also sponsoring me for tires and other things for the event.
- Finally, I would like to thank my mechanic Alex Baten for his hard work on the kart setup and driving advice during the event. He has taught me a lot in this past week. He is one of the best and I'm glad I could deliver a good result for him and the team. Hopefully our paths will cross again soon!
I have learned so much during this event and I have a list of things to practice before next time.
Oscar.
Above: My X30 Junior 3rd place trophy
Above: Me on the podium
Foste
