The weather continued to be fine and warm on Sarno for the second day of activity on the track for the 2019 Rotax Max Challenge Grand Finals. The work of preparing the drivers and refining the machines continued in the French team with the confirmation of the competitiveness of Andy Ratel in Mini Max, Sacha Maguet in Junior Max, Paul Fourquemin in Senior Max and Nicolas Picot in DD2.
Adrien Renaudin gained confidence in his role as captain of Team France by learning more about the different personalities of the French team. Whenever possible, he shared data by category to help all drivers progress. He was not the only one to give informed advice, as Bas Lammers was also available, an opportunity of which some were well aware.
Mini Max – Compkart
Andy Ratel confirmed his speed of the previous day with the 3rd best time of the day – 1’05”364 – more than 4 tenths gained since Monday. Jolan Raccamier came in 5th with a deficit of about 2 tenths and Paul Alberto and Karel Schulz were not far from the top 10. The young drivers all made progress during these two days. Their main concern for Qualifying is to be able to take the lead at the right time on their fast lap, an exercise that is not easy to achieve in an 8-minute session.
Junior Max – Praga
The French were a little behind on Tuesday in terms of pure performance. Sacha Maguet was about 2 tenths behind the fastest, with a good 2nd place in the first odd-numbered session. Téo Blin progressed and distinguished himself in the last odd-numbered session with his 5th position just over 3 tenths off the lead. 7th in the first odd session, Noam Abramczyk dropped under the 61 second mark in the following session and finished with a deficit of about 5 tenths. Enzo Caldaras was working hard with his mechanic and recorded a gain of more than 5 tenths compared to the previous day.
Senior Max – Sodi
Paul Fourquemin stayed on top of the Senior Max category with the absolute fastest time of the day – 59”899 – while finishing in the lead of each session. César Gazeau was not far from the top 10 fastest drivers of the day thanks to his beautiful 4th place in the second even-numbered session in 1’00”149. Guillaume Treillard de Quinemont set times of 1’00”400 in the first two sessions before encountering a problem in the last. Florian Bourdon was not discouraged despite a significant gap to drivers of a generation from his own and was looking at every possible way to increase his performance.
DD2 – Birel ART
Nicolas Picot, now supported by Jean-Jacques Malevaut, continued to be at the front of DD2. He set the 5th fastest time of the day with 58”915 and finished 1st, 4th and 3rd of the three even sessions this Tuesday and was confident about Wednesday’s Qualifying. Lucas Joly improved his previous day’s times with two sessions with 59”400, but encountered technical problems that justified his visit to the Rotax pit.
DD2 Master – Sodi
Romain Mangé had returned to France to have an operation on his collarbone. Rudy Champion finally took to the track on Tuesday morning with a promising 2nd time in the first even session of the morning. However, he couldn’t get close to his time of 59”746 in the afternoon and his engine also had to be examined at Rotax to solve a problem.
Info Kartcom with Kartlink / © Photos KSP