The new stars of international karting at the European Championship in Alcaniz.
A surprising result characterized this race of international karting. It happened in Alcaniz (E), at the Motorland Aragon facility, in the first out of two rounds of the CIK-FIA European Championship (KF and KFJ categories) of the 2013 season. In particular, the KF Junior category had remarkable results achieved by new names of kart racing, even though they had to deal with very experienced drivers. So, the 2013 European championship began with the victories of the Danish Nicklas Nielsen in KF and of the English Lando Norris in KF Junior. In both cases, to achieve success the two drivers had to give their best.
The KF Podium in Spain (Pic: Press.net Images)
Nielsen, first leader in KF.
The first part of the race, in KF, was dominated by the English Ben Barnicoat (ART GP-TM-Vega). However, after winning four heats, he finished the Pre-final in the back positions because of a contact with the Italian Felice Tiene (CRG-Parilla-Vega). It seemed nothing could prevent Nicklas Nielsen (Kosmic-Vortex-Vega) from winning the race, buth the Danish driver was overtaken by his fellow countryman Christian Sorensen (Tony Kart-Vortex-Vega) in Prefinal 2. Moreover, in the other Prefinal, the winner was the Dutch Max Verstappen (CRG-TM-Vega), followed by another top driver such as the French Dorian Boccolacci (Energy-TM-Vega). Despite the great level of his competitors, Nielsen managed to beat them all rather easily after the first two laps of the Final: he managed to gain an early lead starting from the second row ahead of Sorensen. Verstappen pursued the two leaders while Tiene began his recovery from the 15throw of the starting grid. Nielsen kept at bay Sorensen, who managed to close the gap with the leader in the last laps. Verstappen, too, followed closely and nearly passed Sorensen with few metres remaining, when Nielsen had already won the race. Excellent result for Tiene, who completed his recovery with an outstanding 5th place, just behind the Polish Karol Basz (Tony Kart-Vortex-Vega).
Lando Norris in the post-race press conference (Pic: Press.net Images)
Norris, great battle to win in KFJ.
The final result says that the English Lando Norris (FA Kart-Vortex-Le Cont) won the KFJ category. The Londoner crowned with the victory an outstanding weekend: he was the top driver on Friday and Saturday, while on Sunday he had to recover in the final phase. The winner of the Final was the Thai driver Sasakorn Chaimongkol (Kosmic-TM-Le Cont) – holder of a British licence -, but stewards gave him a 10” penalty for a contact with Norris himself during the last lap. The Asian driver dropped back to 14th. That’s a real shame for his performance: he had won Prefinal 1 and had grabbed the pole in the Final. Another protagonist of the race was the Belgian Matteo Raspatelli (Tony Kart-Parilla-LeCont) who, after his victory in Pre-final 2, challenged Norris until the chequered flag of the Final, finishing behind the Englishman for only 44 thousandths of a second. This second place is the first, important international result achieved by the Belgian driver. The third step of the podium was occupied by the Dutch Martijn van Leeuwen (Zanardi-TM-LeCont), who had made himself conspicuous since the first heats.
