In France, the KR Motorsport team emerged victorious from the second round of the European Championship, in both OK and OK-Junior. Making the right choices at the right time is one of the strengths of the Italian brand, which demonstrated its ability to adapt to all weather conditions. Joe Turney and Iacopo Martinese dominated the proceedings on the Val d'Argenton circuit, a track no one was even familiar with a few weeks ago. The Briton is now the Championship leader in OK, while the Italian has moved up to 3rd in OK-Junior.
OK: From pole position to the top step of the podium
The Val d'Argenton competition got off to a superb start with David Cosma Cristofor on pole position. The young Romanian had achieved the same performance two weeks earlier at the Champions of the Future Euro Series. A fine confirmation! Joe Turney then took over with an impressive run in the Qualifying Heats: five races and five wins. He continued to show his superiority on Sunday with wins in the Super Heat and the Final, leading from start to finish each time.
Cosma Cristofor was less successful when he was involved in a collision at the start, as was his team-mate Lewis Francis. Another race incident deprived Oleksandr Bondarev (Prema Racing) of a good result, even though he had won a heat on Saturday. Winner of two heats, Fionn McLaughlin (VDK Racing) then crossed the finish line of the Final in 6th position, before falling back to 10th due to a penalty (spoiler). Two other KR-IAME drivers finished in the top 10: Aaron Garcia (DPK Racing) P7 and Salim Hanna (Prema Racing) P9. Salim also won a Super Heat and was 5th under the chequered flag, before in turn receiving a penalty. Noah Monteiro (KR Motorsport) moved up 16 places from P29 to P13. His team-mate Guy Albag returned to P16 after gaining six positions.
OK-Junior: Martinese wins, Coronel moves up to P3
Iacopo Martinese (KR Motorsport) was crying with joy at the finish! It has to be said that the young Italian put in an XXL performance in France. At the wheel of his high-performance KR-IAME, Iacopo always knew how to handle situations, whatever the grip conditions on the track. After pole position, he won four of his five heats. He secured 2nd place in the Super Heat to retain his pole on the grid for the Final. Martinese won his duels with his main rivals and to wear the Cetilar Racing colours with honour.
Rocco Coronel's meeting got off to a poor start, but the Dutchman from the Victory Lane team spared no effort to win his place on the third step of the podium with two laps to go in the Final. Rocco had only started 19th! Talking of comebacks, Niklas Schaufler (DPK Racing) made an impressive one: 50th in Qualifying, the Austrian scored the points to take 6th place in the Championship! P9, Kit Belofsky (Fusion Motorsport) scored his best result in FIA Karting. P2 in Qualifying and P11 in the Final, Daniel Kelleher (KR Motorsport) put in a fine performance throughout the meeting. The fastest lap of the Final went to Kenzo Craigie (Prema Racing), who climbed from 29th to 16th place. Louis Cochet (Victory Lane), in the top 10 after the heats, and Jensen Burnett (Fusion Motorsport), P18 in the Final, also made good progress. Noah Baglin (Prema Racing) and Dean Hoogendoorn (AKM Motorsport) both performed well but were unable to make the grade in the Final.
A comment from Dino Chiesa, Head of KR Global Motorsport Company
"These two victories are really satisfying because they are the result of a lot of development work carried out before the race. We took a different technical approach to Valencia and optimised the tyres to suit the conditions, which changed a lot over the weekend. Our choices in terms of set-up and tyre pressures contributed to the excellent overall result achieved by our drivers. I'd also like to congratulate our engine builders, who were able to find a bit of extra performance in the IAME engines. Well done to Joe and Iacopo for their perfect run, as well as to Rocco who made a magnificent comeback to conquer the podium in OK-Junior. It was a pity for Salim Hanna who lost his 5th place when he overtook under a yellow flag. It should be pointed out that there were no further incidents at that point, so the yellow flag was no longer legitimate. Our eyes now turn to Slovakia. We'll be discovering a new circuit once again, which promises to be interesting.”