Qualifying practice unfolded with confirmations and surprising results in the second round of the WSK Super Master Series.
The intense race weekend of the second round of the WSK Super Master Series at the Cremona Circuit, featuring the MINI, OK, OKJ, OKNJ, and KZ2 categories, once again sees a significant participation of over 300 drivers from 50 nations and the most important official teams with major manufacturers.
Qualifying practice.
The Cremona event kicked off with Friday's qualifying sessions, which proved to be quite challenging due to light rain in the morning. Nevertheless, the lap times were interesting, with some performances highlighting new contenders compared to the first round in Lonato.
KZ2 - Bertuca confirms his pace.
In KZ2, the Italian driver Cristian Bertuca (#1 BirelART Racing/BirelART-TM Kart-Vega) set the pace and secured the overall pole position in Session-2 with a time of 1'00.810s, confirming his leadership after the first round in Lonato. His teammate Artem Severiukhin took the second position in the session with a time 0.296s higher, while another Italian, Giuseppe Palomba (#12 Sodikart/Sodi-TM Kart), secured the third position with a time difference of +0.327s.
In Session-1, Bertuca's teammate, the Romanian driver Daniel Vasile on BirelART-TM Kart, claimed the fastest time with 1'00.906s. He was followed by another teammate, the Spanish driver Pedro Hiltbrand, in second place with a gap of 0.198s. The Estonian Markus Kajak (#14 Maranello SRP/Maranello-TM Kart) took the third position with a gap of 0.288s, while the French driver Emilien Denner (#11 Sodikart/Sodi-TM Kart) secured P4 with a gap of 0.339s.
OK – The Irish MacLaughlin is surprisingly fast.
In the OK category, the surprise came from the Irish driver Fionn MacLaughlin (#267 VDK Racing/KR-Iame-LeCont), who secured the pole position in Session-2 with a time of 1:03.314s. He was followed by Gerasim Skulanov (#233 DPK Racing/KR-Iame) at 0.133s and French driver Jimmy Helias (#270 KR Motorsport/KR-Iame) at 0.298s. Some contenders from the first round in Lonato are lagging behind, such as the Belgian Ean Eyckmans (#209 BirelART Racing/TM Kart), Colombian Salim Hanna (#208 Prema Racing/KR-Iame), and Italian Sebastiano Pavan (#218 Tony Kart Racing Team/OTK-Vortex).
In Session-2, the fastest time was set by the Brazilian driver Gabriel Gomez (#263 CRG Racing Team/CRG-Iame) with a time of 1:03.761s. He outpaced the series leader and Lonato dominator, the Ukrainian Oleksandr Bondarev (#201 Prema Racing/KR-Iame), by 0.166s, and Monaco's Oscar Repetto (#272 DPK Racing/KR-Iame) by 0.215s.
OKJ – Sala shines, as the leader Schaufler lags behind.
Filippo Sala (#327 Ricky Flynn/LN-TM Kart-Vega) has been shining in OKJ posting the fastest time in Session-1 and overall with a time of 1:03.160s. The Italian driver was closely followed by the Belgian Dries Van Langendonck (#328 Forza Racing/Exprit-TM Kart), who was just 0.021s behind.
Van Langendonck, second in the championship, went, however, fastest in Session-2 with a time of 1:03.181.
In Session-3, the German driver Arjen Kraeling (#308 KR Motorsport/KR-Iame) stood out with a time of 1:03.921s. However, the championship leader Niklas Schaufler (#301 DPK Racing/KR-Iame) missed the mark in this series. The Austrian, winner of the previous WSK Super Master Series round and the earlier event in the WSK Champions Cup season, only secured the 12th position in Session-3 with a time of 1:04.701s.
OKNJ – Viapiana under the spotlight.
In the OK-Junior federal category, the Italian driver Valerio Viapiana (#702 Team Driver/KR-Iame-Vega), an excellent performer on wet asphalt, secured the pole position with a time of 1:04.353s. He was followed by another Italian, Andrea Manni (#739 Forza Racing/Exprit-TM Kart), at 0.152s, and the Slovakian Alex Molota (#717 Firefly/Gillard-TM Kart) at 0.194s. The championship leader and dominant force in the previous round in Lonato, the Romanian Bogdan Cosma Cristofor (#711 Forza Racing/Exprit-TM Kart), took the seventh position with a gap of 0.366s.
MINI GR.3 – Confirmations for Blandino.
The Italian Cristian Blandino (#550 Kalì-Kart Racing/TGroup-TM Kart-Vega), who is the championship leader of MINI Gr.3, continued to display great speed in Cremona, securing the absolute pole position with a time of 1:08.648s in Session-2. He led the Polish driver Antoni Ociepa (#532 Novalux/Lenzokart-LKE) by 0.633s.
In Session-1, the Ukrainian Oleksandr Legenkyi (#503 Team Driver/KR-Iame) took the lead with the fastest time of 1:09.312s. He was followed by the Italian Gioele Girardello (#577 Parolin Motorsport/Parolin-TM Kart) at 0.346s, and Legenkyi's teammate from Spain, Daniel Miron Lorente (#501 Team Driver/KR-Iame), who is second in the championship, secured the third time in the session with a gap of 0.384s.
MINI GR.3 U10 - Moscardi and Kosmopoulos secure the pole position in the two Sessions.
BirelArt Racing stood out among the youngest in the Under 10 category, where even at the ages of 8 to 10, official teams make their presence felt. The Italian driver David Moscardi on BirelART-TM Kart-Vega secured the absolute pole position in Session-1 with a time of 1:08.877s. He was followed by his teammate, the Dutch driver Senn Lindeman, at 0.443s, and Leon Chelidze (#504 Team Driver/KR-Iame) at 0.583s. The dominant force from the first round in Lonato, the Swedish driver Carl Nellegard (#553 Ward Racing/Tony Kart-TM Kart) was lagging a bit behind, as hetook the seventh position with a gap of 0.872s.
In Session-2, the Greek driver Jason Kosmopoulos, with the official CRG Racing Team on TGroup-TM Kart, secured the pole position, clocking in a best time of 1:09.243s. He was followed by two Italians, Edoardo Colucci (#CMT/Parolin-Iame) at 0.130s and Gabriele Iacomelli (#557 DR/DR-TM Kart) at 0.168s.
The program of the day will continue with qualifying heats.
The program of the WSK Super Master Series, Rd2 Cremona Circuit:
Friday, February 9th: free practice from 8:30; qualifying practice from 11:00; heats from 13:00.
Saturday, February 10th: warm-up from 8:00; qualifying heats from 9:50.
Sunday, February 11th: warm-up from 8:00; Live TV and Live Streaming from 9:30 Prefinals and from 12:35 Finals (12:35 KZ2, 13:05 MINI U10, 14:00 MINI GR.3, 14:30 OKJ; 15:00 OK; 15:30 OKNJ).