The KF3 World Cup was down to the nitty-gritty on Friday afternoon at the Zuera circuit in Spain. Qualifying Practice and the first Qualifying Heats are on the schedule the 88 competitors. Although certain favourites were in the line-up, some also experienced their first disappointments. But the weekend is only just beginning …
In bright sunshine, with hardly a breath of wind and temperatures close to 30°C, the weather did not affect Qualifying Practice on Friday afternoon. All the Drivers had practically identical conditions in which to start their campaigns. Top speed and strategy on a track, where slipstreaming so important, should indeed play a role.
The Canadian Lance Stroll (Zanardi-Parilla) has often shown good speed without so far achieving the desired result, in CIK-FIA competition for the KF3 category (for 13-15 year-olds). In Zuera, the protégé of the Ferrari Driver Academy, although not yet 14 years old, still made a strong impression by posting the fastest time of all 88 Drivers present. It was a great start to the weekend, making him one of the men to watch on the Spanish track. In all events Stroll deprived the local Guillermo Russo (FA Kart-Vortex) of pole position on his home soil, but the Spaniard was nonetheless one of the pleasant surprises in Qualifying, as were the Italian Lorenzo Travisanutto (Tony Kart-Vortex), the representative of the United Arab Emirates Thomas Michael Bale (FA Kart Vortex) and the Brazilian Vitor Baptista (CRG-BMB).
In 6th place, the European Championship runner-up, Spain’s Alex Palou (CRG-BMB) was the best placed of the favourites. The Top 10 was completed by the Frenchman Bryan Elpitiya (Zanardi-Parilla), the Russian Nikita Sitnikov (Tony Kart-BMB), the Spaniard Arturo Melgar (FA-Vortex) and the Briton Daniel Ticktum (Zanardi-Parilla). Among the favourites, in 12th place was the two-time European Champion George Russell (Intrepid-Vortex), two places ahead of the Frenchman Dorian Boccolacci (Intrepid-TM). If we can talk of a mixed result for the Italian Luca Corberi (Kosmic-Vortex), knocking on the door of the Top 20, disappointment was all the more bitter for the American Santino Ferrucci (Energy-TM) and the Croatian Martin Kodric (FA Kart-Vortex), two Drivers who have consistently been among the leaders in the European campaign but who on this occasion had to be content with 48th and 57 th positions.
Following Qualifying Practice, each Driver contested the first of his five Qualifying Heats. Lance Stroll, Luca Corberi, with a fine fight-back, and Vitor Baptista began with wins whilst among the more unfortunate in their first Heat was Britain’s Callum Ilott (Zanardi-Parilla), who was involved in a collision, after his 18th place in Practice, and one to watch at the start of the weekend.
Info CIK / © Photo KSP