The first protagonists of the opening round of the WSK Euro Series in Franciacorta

Qualifying on Friday marked the start of the qualifications stages for the WSK Euro Series at the Franciacorta Karting Track. In this first round, there is a significant international participation with over 300 drivers from 57 nationalities competing in the MINI, OK and OKJ categories, as well as in the two new federal categories, OK-N and OK-N Junior.

OKJ – Monza, Lindblom and Schaufler are the fastest of the Series.

Three heats were required for the OKJ qualifying, which features over 100 drivers. In Session-1, the fastest time was set by the Singaporean driver Tiziano Monza (#374 Shamick Europe/Parolin-TM Kart-Vega) with a time of 48.749s, holding a 0.165s advantage over the Australian driver Lewis Francis (#306 KR Motorsport/KR-Iame) and a 0.310s lead over the Brazilian driver Enzo Nienkotter (#336 CRG Racing Team/CRG-TM Kart). Luna Fluxa Cross (#313 KR-Iame) from Prema Racing secured the fourth-best time, just two thousandths of a second behind.

In Session-2, the final sprint of the Scott Kin Lindblom (#315 Tony Kart R.T./Tony Kart-Vortex) earned the Swedish driver the overall best time in 48.589s. He was followed by French driver Louis Cochet (#377 Sodikart/Sodi-TM Kart), trailing by 0.028s, and German driver Taym Saleh (#314 Sauber Academy/KR-Iame) at 0.122s, who edged out the Ukrainian driver Oleksandr Bondarev (#311 Prema Racing/KR-Iame) by just one thousandth of a second.

In Session-3, the Austrian driver Niklas Schaufler (#354 DPK Racing/KR-Iame) took the lead with a time of 48.615s. He was followed by the Swedish driver Elliot Kaczynski (#359 Ward Racing/Tony Kart-Vortex) by 0.052s, and two Parolin Motorsport drivers, the Spanish driver Cristian Costoya (#348 Parolin-TM Kart) at 0.084s, and the American driver Jack Iliffe (#350 Parolin-TM Kart) at 0.146s.             

OK – Nakamura-Berta in Pole Position from Lammers and Dupé.

Three sessions were also required for the OK category. In Session-1, the two Prema Racing drivers on KR-Iame-MG karts were the fastest. The Japanese driver Kean Nakamura-Berta posted the overall best time in 46.976s, while Thai driver Enzo Tarnvanichkul was just 15 thousandths of a second behind. The French driver Arthur Poulain with AKM Motorsport on a KR-Iame kart secured the third-best time at 0.117 seconds, ahead of two African drivers racing with KR Motorsport on KR-Iame karts, Ghazi Motlekar at 0.154s, and Luviwe Sambudla at 0.177s.

In Session-2, the Dutch driver René Lammers (#201 Parolin Motorsport/Parolin-TM Kart) was the fastest with a time of 47.082s, followed by Czech Republic's Eliska Babickova from Forza Racing on an Exprit-TM Kart, trailing by 0.114 seconds. The Brazilian drivers Miguel Costa (#202 Parolin Motorsport/Parolin-TM Kart) at 0.122 and Gabriel Gomez (#241 CRG Racing Team/CRG-Iame) at 0.132 were next in line, while the Italian driver Sebastiano Pavan (#218 Tony Kart R.T./Tony Kart-Vortex) closed with the fifth-best time in 47.225s.

In Session-3, the French driver Andrea Dupé (#208 KR Motorsport/KR-Iame) was the fastest with a time of 47.094s, with 55 thousandths of a second advantage over Kirill Kutskov (#256 DPK Racing/KR-Iame) and one-tenth of a second of Dmitry Matveev. The Italian driver Mattia Colnaghi (#249 CRG Racing Team/CRG-Iame) concluded with the fourth-best time at 0.124s.

MINI Gr.3 – The best positions to Bagutti and Cosma Cristofor.

In the two sessions of MINI Gr.3, the overall best time was set by the Italian driver Pietro Bagutti of Gamoto team (#532 EKS-TM Kart-Vega) in 54.382s, time posted in the first session. He led the Swiss driver Riven Esteves (#510 Team Driver/KR-Iame) by 0.027s and the Spanish driver Bosco Arias Chavarri (#505 Team Driver/KR-Iame) by 0.077s.

In Session-2, the other Team Driver driver, the Romanian Bogdan Cosma Cristofor (#501 Team Driver/Iame), stood out with the best time of 54.515s. He led the two Parolin Motorsport drivers, the Italian Gioele Girardello by 92 thousandths and Belgian Bruno Priam by 0.148s, both on Parolin-TM Kart

MINI Gr.3 Under 10 – Frasnelli and Miron Lorente lead the pack.

The Italian driver Julian Frasnelli of AV Racing on a Parolin-Iame-Vega kart posted the best time in Session-1 (54.650s), also securing the overall best time in MINI Gr.3 Under 10. He had a 0.037s advantage over the Australian driver Sebastian Eskandari Marandi (#555 Tony Kart R.T./Tony Kart-Vortex) and 0.057s over the Portuguese driver Xavier Lazaro (#560 DR/DR-TM Kart).

In Session-2, the Spanish driver Daniel Miron Lorente (#507 Team Driver/KR-Iame) was the fastest with a time of 54.971s. He was just ahead of the Italian drivers Lorenzo Di Pietrantonio (#516 BabyRace/Parolin-Iame) by a mere thousandth of a second and Niccolò Perico (#575 Energy Corse/Energy-TM Kart) by 0.164 seconds.

OK-N and OK-N Junior – The Pole Position to Cortopassi (OKN) and Ivannikov (OKNJ).

In the two categories OK-N and OK-N Junior, the Italian driver Gianmarco Cortopassi (OKN #805 Maranello-TM Kart-Vega), posted a surprising time of 49.185s, making him the fastest overall. He was followed by the two Junior drivers, Vladimir Ivannikov (OKNJ #708 Gamoto/OTK-TM Kart) with the best time at 49.418s and the Polish driver Bruno Gryc (OKNJ #715 MLG Racing/Parolin-TM Kart) at 49.496s. The Turkish driver Bati Ege Yildirim from Modena Kart also performed well with the second-best time in OK-N at 0.368s and the Dutch driver Dean Hoogendoorn from AKM Motorsport secured the third-best time in Junior and fifth overall with a time of 49.646s.

The results of the initial heats on Friday

The first qualifying heats were also held on Friday afternoon. They will continue on Saturday, September 2nd, to determine the finalists for the Sunday’s races. The first winners were:

OKJ: BONDAREV (A-B), SALEH (C-D), KACZYNSKI (E-F), BONDAREV (A-C), SALEH (D-F), COSTOYA (B-E).

OK: NAKAMURA-BERTA (A-B), MATVEEV (C-D), GOMEZ (E-F), NAKAMURA-BERTA (A-C), TARNVANICHKUL (D-F), LAMMERS (B-E).

MINI U10: LEGENKYI (A-B), GORSKI (C-D).

MINI Gr3: COSMA CRISTOFOR (A-B), BAGLIN (C-D).

OKN: CORTOPASSI (Heat-1).

OKNJ: IVANNIKOV (Heat-1).

The program of the WSK Euro Series, Round 1, Franciacorta:
Saturday, September 2nd: Warm-up at 8:15; qualifying heats from 10:30.
Sunday, September 3rd: warm-up at 8:30; Live TV and Streaming from 9:50 of Prefinals and Finals from 12:30 (12:30 MINI U10, 14:00 MINI GR.3, 14:30 OKJ, 15:00 OK; 15:30 OKN-OKNJ).

Info: www.wskarting.it/index.asp

WSK Euro Series 2023:
1st Rd – 03/09/2023 FRANCIACORTA / MINI – OKJ – OK - OKN - OKNJ
2nd Rd – 05/11/2023 SARNO / MINI – OKJ – OK – KZ2 - OKN - OKNJ