On Friday, March 17th, qualifying practice sessions for the 34th Margutti Trophy officially kicked off the event at the South Garda Karting circuit in Lonato, with over 240 registered drivers from 37 countries in the MINI, OKJ, KZ2, X30 Junior and X30 Senior. The first surprises did not fail to occur among the many international protagonists of this historic event organized by Parma Motorsport in memory of the young Andrea Margutti.
KZ2 – Bertuca and Vasile have the upper hand in the heats.
There were no surprises in KZ2, where the pole position went to the favorite of the weekend, Cristian Bertuca, who has been dominating this early season. He was racing with the KCS team on a BirelART-TM-Vega and immediately set the best time in Session 1 and overall with a 45.653s. He finished ahead of the evergreen Davide Forè with Renda Motorsport on a Sodikart-TM by 0.239s and Alex Maragliano with Maranello SRP on a Maranello-TM by 0.245s. In Session 2, the fastest was Bertuca’s teammate, the Romanian Daniel Vasile, who posted a time just slightly higher than Bertuca’s: 45.985s. The surprise came from the second performance, which went to the 15-year-old Samuele Leopardi with Zanchi Motorsport on a CRG-Modena, who was just 0.002s behind Vasile. The third fastest time was set by the German Tim Troger, Maragliano’s teammate, who was 0.245s behind.
OK-Junior – Drivers from the East of Europe to the fore, led by Krutogolov.
A pleasant surprise is represented by the lineup of drivers in OKJ, which is composed of many new names, and especially, but not only, coming from Eastern European countries. The fastest driver, Lev Krutogolov from Ukraine (Borsch Racing/Tony Kart-Iame-Vega), who stopped the clock at 48.048s ended just ahead of Czech Republic’s Tobias Szecsenyi (Hagemann Racing/Exprit-TM) by 0.118s and the Romanian David Cosma Cristofor (KR Motorsport/KR-Iame) was 0.141s shy of the top. The fourth fastest time was set by the Estonian Hugo Rajamets (Vihur-Team/Exprit-TM) who had a gap of 0.216s, and the fifth by the Swede Fred Saareks (Ward Racing/LN-Vortex) at 0.252s.
MINI Gr.3 – Rousseau is the fastest of Session 1, while Esteves is the surprise of Session 2.
In the crowded MINI Gr.3, the fastest was the Panamanian Gianmatteo Rousseau (Kidix/KR-Iame-Vega) with a time of 52.722s, which was the best time of Session 1 and overall, ahead of two other protagonists in the category, the Spaniard Bosco Aria Chavarri (Team Driver/KR-Iame) who was just 0.01s slower and the teammate from Romania Bogdan Cosma-Cristofor, who had a gap of 0.049s. Riven Esteves (BabyRace/Parolin-Iame) prevailed in Session 2 with a time of 52.899s and led two other category protagonists, Vladimir Ivannikov (Gamoto/EKS-TM) at 0.200s and the Turkish Iskender Zulfikari, also with BabyRace at 0.308s.
MINI Gr.3 Under 10 – The fastest is Eskandari-Marandi.
A nice surprise came in MINI Gr.3 Under 10, where the best time was obtained by the Greek Jason Kosmopoulos (Cosmorally/Energy-TM-Vega) in Session 1 in 53.473s, although the best overall time was obtained in Session 2 by the Australian Sebastian Eskandari-Marandi (Tony Kart Racing Team/Tony Kart-Vortex) in 52.872s. Behind the very young Kosmopoulos, the Estonian Mark Martin Loomets (Gamoto/EKS-TM) finished in second place, 0.054s behind, and the Dane Matteis Stigsen (AF Competition/Parolin-TM) was third at 0.096s. The fastest drivers of Session 2, after Eskandari-Marandi, were the American Drew Walz (BabyRace/Parolin-Iame) at 0.131s and the Italian Niccolò Perico (Energy Corse/Energy-TM) at 0.230s.
X30 Junior – Ferrari takes the pole for 0.011s.
In X30 Junior, the pole position was a battle by the Italian Riccardo Ferrari (M2 Racing/Tony Kart-Iame-Komet) and the Swiss Tiziano Kuzhnini (Team Driver/Tony Kart-Iame) down to the wire of thousandths of a second. Eventually, Ferrari prevaile by 0.011s. Alberto Fulgori (Fulgori/Tony Kart-Iame) set the third fastest time, being 0.127s behind Ferrari.
X30 Senior – Wurthenberger pips Carenini by 0.002s.
The pole position in X30 Senior was decided by just a few milliseconds. The German driver Colin Wurthenberger (KGT Motorsport/Tony Kart-Iame-Komet) came out on top with a time of 48.411s, which was only 0.002s faster than Danny Carenini’s time (Energy Corse/Energy-Iame). Federico Rossi (PRK/Tony Kart-Iame) took third place.
The initial heats.
The first heats were held in the afternoon and will continue throughout Saturday. The first winners were Riccardo Ferrari in X30 Junior, Cristian Comanducci in X30 Senior, David Cosma Cristofor in OK-Junior, Cristian Bertuca (A-B) and Markus Kajak (C-D) in KZ2.
The program of the 34th Andrea Margutti Trophy:
Saturday, March 18: Qualifying heats.
Sunday, March 19, Live Streaming: Prefinals from 14:00, Finals from 15:30, Prize Ceremony at 18:00.
Info Parma Motorsport