Third official day of running completed for the 2019 Rotax MAX Challenge Grand Finals at the Circuito Internazionale Napoli of Sarno were the last Non-Qualifying Practice Sessions, Qualifying and first heat races unfolded on Wednesday for the 360 drivers split into the seven classes.
Rotax THUNDeR (DEKM)
The race lead was inherited by Urwin and Macauley Bishop, who battled every lap until the very last. The Kiwi had a slight gap over Bishop, but a mistake in sector three allowed his rival to catch up; and on the last corner of the last lap, the first-ever British Micro MAX driver pulled off an impressive overtaking maneuver to take the race win with the best lap from Urwin and Timofey Mikhaylov. A special mention to the young Japanese driver Yuto Nakai who overtook 13 karts in the 7 laps to finish in 14th.
Mini MAX
Mini Max began their day just one tenth of a second shy of yesterday’s fastest time with the Dutch youngster Jayden Thien setting a 1:05.375. Andy Ratel was too far behind with a 1:05.467 and Harry Hannam was third with a 1:05.567 secs. The official timed practice went out soon after 11 am and the event got a little more serious for the youngsters. With just ten seconds on the clock, Ratel set an unbeatable time of 1:05.241 seconds with Costa Toparis in second (1:05.273) and Raphael Rennhofer’s 1:05.323 ranking him third.
Micro MAX
Micro MAX was second out on the slightly damp track this morning and it was Adam Al Azhari who went purple with a 1:10.094 secs. He was followed by Salvador Trindade (1:10.331) and Tommie Van Der Struijs (1:10.404) in 3rd.
Just as the air temperature rose to 22°C the Micro MAX karts started their qualifying, as the majority of the drivers headed straight out on to the track. 8 minutes provided us with many changes in the order and it was an excellent performance from Thiago Falivene (1:09.032) who was the only competitor to improve in every sector on the last lap, securing pole position for the heats with Ben Maier next fastest (1:09.077) followed by Jay Urwin (1:09.222).
The first heat for Micro MAX started with Falivene on pole position. He led the way for 3 laps with a gap of 2-tenths to Urwin in P2, before he spun out of the lead and unfortunately, fell back to 20th place.
The race lead was inherited by Urwin and Macauley Bishop, who battled every lap until the very last. The Kiwi had a slight gap over Bishop, but a mistake in sector three allowed his rival to catch up, and on the last corner of the last lap, the first ever British Micro MAX driver pulled off an impressive overtaking manoeuvre to take the race win with the best lap from Urwin and Timofey Mikhaylov.
A special mention to the young Japanese driver Yuto Nakai who overtook 13 karts in the 7 laps to finish in 14th.
Ratel led the first Mini MAX race of the 20th annual RMC Grand Finals, before Thien managed a pass using the slipstream along the back straight. For the remainder of the race, Ratel pushed Thien and despite a battle on the final lap, the leader was able to hang on and take the win. The fight for third was won by Jolan Raccamier who had a very close fight with Toparis, Rennhofer, and Paul Alberto.
Junior MAX
Junior MAX started their final practice before Qualifying and in the odd-numbered group, it was Mike Van Vugt who set the fastest time (1:01.058) followed by Lucas Bohdanowicz (1:01.076) and Aqil Alibhai (1:01.119). The even-numbered group went next and it was Marcel Surmacz from Poland who went fastest with 1:01.030 seconds, then Charlie Wurz (1:01.110) and Fedor Bykonya (1:01.133 seconds).
With all Junior MAX drivers pushing hard to achieve the best lap, Rasmus Andersen set the initial pace with a 1:02.760. Unfortunately, on the out-lap, Jose Andres Cordova stopped in sector 2 with an issue bringing out the yellow flags for the first few laps. After all the laps had been completed, it was Oli Pylka who set the fastest lap of 1:00.581 secs with both Van Vugt and Miska Kaskinen just one thousand off (1:00.582). The top six drivers were all separated by just 0.092 seconds.
The even-numbered karts followed with all eyes on Pylka’s time for pole position. Karts 232, 254 and 238 all went out immediately leaving everyone else to follow around 30 seconds later. This group was faster, with Clay Osborne taking pole position (1:00.311) leaving Charlie Wurz six hundredths behind in second and Huge Barter in third (1:00.516)
A+B Heat:
In a dramatic lap 1 of the Junior MAX race, Osbourn led the way from Reinaerdts. Using the slipstream again down the back straight and into the first braking zone of the track, Reinaerdts was able to take the lead. With two laps to go, Osborne began to defend from Wurz and Fedor Bykonya, allowing Reinaerdts to pull a gap of over half a second and take the victory.
C+D Heat:
Another dramatic lap one left Dozono leading the way from Haanen and Barter. An eight-kart battle for P1 quickly became a three-kart battle with Barter leading. In a scrap at turn 9 on the fifth lap between Dozono second and Haanen third, the Aussie took full advantage to draw his lead out to 1.3 seconds. So it was Barter who took the win from Beau Pronesti and Jenic. Lucas Da Silva Mendes passed an incredible 23 karts in just 10 laps finishing in ninth. After the race, Pronesti received a front fairing penalty of five seconds pushing him back to seventh while promoting Jenic to second and Oli Pylka up to third.
Senior MAX
With Qualifying just around the corner, the drivers were tweaking their set-ups going into Non-Qualifying Practice 7. It was yet again Paul Fourquemin who clocked the fastest lap (1:00.025) in the odd-numbered group, followed by Matteo Richter (1:00.025) and Vincent France (1:00.074) third quickest. The even-numbered karts were slightly faster as Tereza Babickova set the pace with a 59.965, closely trailed by Cesar Gazeau (59.983) and Oakley Pryer (59.995).
With the slipstream being worth a lot down the back straight, nobody wanted to be first on the track in the Senior MAX class. Gustavo Gomez was first on track followed by everybody else a few seconds later. The odd-numbered group ended up fastest with Elia Galvanin taking pole position with a time of 59.588. Second overall went to France (59.687) and third to the fastest of the even-numbered session Ryan Norberg (59.715).
A+B Heat:
Race 1 for the Senior MAX’s started with Galvanin on Pole position and France alongside on row 1. France and Pryer got the jump into turn 1, through to lap 7 when Pryer overtook into turn 1. France attempted to regain his spot at the end of the back straight but, consequently, allowed Cody Gilis and Galvanin through, pushing Pryer back to fourth. Gilis went on to take the win from France and Galvanin. After the race, Gillis received a front fairing five-second penalty relegating the former Junior RMCGF champion to eighth and promoting France to the race victory.
C+D Heat:
The race got underway with Fourquemin leading and Guillaume Treillard De Qu close behind in second. On lap 2, the n°304 of Norberg took the lead but five laps later, Ravenscroft passed Norberg around the outside down the straight and into turn 2 to take the lead. Guy Cunnington in third pushed with Axel Saarniala in fourth to catch Norberg. On the last lap, Cunnington overtook Norberg down the back straight for second, although it was Ravenscroft who eventually won the race by 0.693 seconds. However, after the race, both Norberg and Saarniala received front fairing penalties, so the final result was eighth and ninth for the pair, handing Guilherme De Oliveira third.
DD2 Masters
In the first and final practice session of the day for Rotax DD2 Masters, it was Antti Ollikainen from Finland who once again topped the timesheets with 59.285 seconds, then Matias Rodriguez (59.424) and Roberto Pesevski (59:436). In the even-numbered group, Nicholas Verheul with 59.532 went fastest with Arto Savenius (59.771) in second and Rudy Champion (59.820) third. It was Pesevski (59.412) who secured Pole position in Qualifying from Ollikainen (59.452) and Matias Rodriguez (59.561) in the opening group. The next group saw Verheul first with a 59.526 but only rank third overall, followed by Savenius (59.622) and Joao Oliveira (59.640).
A+B Heat:
In an action-packed first heat for the DD2 Masters, Pesevski lost out at the start to Ollikainen, Grube and Eriks Gasparovics, as the trio quickly moved up into the Top-Three places ahead of the Austrian. The flying Finn went on to win the race and post the fastest race lap by 0.358 seconds from Grube.
C+D Heat
Verheul started on pole beside Rodriguez with Savenius and Oliveira lining up on row 2 as the front- runners got off to a great start while Jari Koivisto slotted into third. Verheul was the pace-setter (59.850) and crossed the line ahead of Rodriguez and Koivisto.
DD2
With the track temperature continuing to rise, it was the DD2s who headed out for their final practice session. The odd-numbered group was led by Jonathon Marcusson (58.647 secs) then came Petr Bezel (58.737) and Dimitris Vasileris (58.936). In the even-numbered group, it was Daniel Machacek (58.592) clearly quickest from Christos Oikonomou (58.760) and Cristian Trolese (58.770).
The initial DD2 qualifying session ended prematurely with Alejandro Herrera and Freddie Carlsson failing to set a time and bringing out yellow flags. It was the seasoned Czech driver Bezel who went fastest with 58.758 seconds to Lucas Joly (58.852) and Vasileris (58.963). In the even-numbered class, it was Oikonomou (58.790) who lead the pack from local entry Luca Munaretto (58.807) and Frenchman Nicolas Picot (58.841). Bezel was too good setting the top time ahead of the 2019 RMC International Trophy champion Munaretto.
A+B Heat:
In the first heat for the DD2, it was Petr Bezel who started pole. Lap 4 saw a five-kart battle for the lead against Bezel, Trolese, Kacper Bielecki, Munaretto, and Machacek, setting the pace (59.123). By lap 6, Bezel had a break of nearly two seconds from Bielecki and Munaretto going on to take the chequered flag with a lead of 0.628 seconds from Munaretto and Machacek, as Trolese set the best lap (58.980).
C+D Heat:
In Qualifying Heat 1 for the drivers in group C+D, it was Picot who led the field from Lucas Joly and Ville Viiliainen maintaining P1 for a start-to-finish victory 1.4 seconds ahead. Matvejs Makusins lined up on grid 34 and advanced 12 places on lap 1, obviously bringing him back into the fight for positions. Meanwhile, Christos Oikonomou gained 13 spots and set the fastest lap (59.152) in the process.
OVERALL FASTEST LAP TIMES
Micromax: 1:09.032 | Thiago Falivene | No. 16
Minimax: 1:05.241 | Andy Ratel | No 128
Junior Max: 1:00.311 | Clay Osborne | No. 206
Senior Max: 59.588 | Elia Galvanin | No. 371
DD2: 58.592 | Daniel Machacek | No. 436
DD2M: 59.412 | Roberto Pesevski | No. 541
DEKM: 1:04.118 | Jie Kao | No. 604
Info: BRP Rotax
photo: rotax-kart.com
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