OK: Travisanutto dominates before the storm
Less than a month after a timid start in Angerville, Lorenzo Travisanutto (KR/IAME) reminded his rivals this Sunday why he’s to be counted within this year’s fight for the title. Sharing the front row of the grid with Pedro Hiltbrand (CRG/IAME), who finished on top of the provisional points classification after the Heats, the reigning World champion jumped ahead of the Spaniard at lights out to take the lead. From then on, the Italian kept increasing the gap from the rest of the field led by a strong Morgan Porter (KR/IAME) battling against Hiltbrand, Dilano Vant’ Hoff (Exprit/TM) and Alex Irlando (BirelART/TM). If Travisanutto remained unreachable all race long, Van’t Hoff climbed up to second place in front of Dexter Patterson (KR/IAME), who recovered ground from 8th and settled for third past the halfway mark, while Hiltbrand lost a potential top 4 after that a mechanical failure stopped him on track a handful of laps from the end.
As the race was heading for its conclusion, a thunderstorm struck above the “Home of Champions” circuit with rain pouring more and more heavily, which forced the race to be red flagged three laps from the chequered flag. Travisanutto kept himself in the lead to clinch his first win in the European Championship since Le Mans 2017. The order behind was modified post-race with a 5-second penalty for front fairing given to Van’t Hoff (11th overall), promoting Patterson and Beganovic to second and third respectively. Entering the event as “Wild Card” (a term that defines a driver taking part in only selected events of a series), Ben Dörr (KR/IAME) did indeed go “wild” in the field by recovering 11 places to miss out the top 3 in front of Porter.
In the championship standings, Patterson is leading with 58 points, 15 more than Travisanutto and 23 from Gabriele Mini’, sixth in Genk.
OK top 10 results
- Lorenzo Travisanutto (KR / IAME / LeCont)
- Dexter Patterson (KR / IAME / LeCont) + 10.284
- Dino Beganovic (Tony Kart / Vortex / LeCont) + 10.652
- Ben Dörr (KR / IAME / LeCont) + 10.863
- Morgan Porter (KR / IAME / LeCont) + 11.200
- Gabriele Mini’ (Parolin / TM Racing / LeCont) + 11.723
- Nikolas Pirttilahti (KR / IAME / LeCont) + 11.975
- Genis Civico Espona (Croc Promotions / TM Racing / LeCont) + 12.624
- Alessandro Irlando (Birel Art / TM Racing / LeCont) + 12.821
- Joshua Dufek (KR / IAME / LeCont) + 13.471
OK Junior : Amand takes his maiden European win
Marcus Amand (Kosmic/IAME) was the man of the hour this Sunday in Genk. Efficient through the Heats where he took two victories, the young Frenchman, who wears a crash-helmet colored after the Finnish flag referring to his second nationality, showed a great deal of pace to take his first ever win in the FIA Karting European Championship.
The OK Junior Final started with an epic battle including Alex Dunne (Tony Kart/Vortex), who took a better start than his Tony Kart teammate in Pole position Nikita Bedrin (Tony Kart/Vortex), Thomas Ten Brinke (FA Kart/Vortex), Robert De Haan (Energy Corse/TM), and Andrea Kimi Antonelli (KR/IAME), soon rejoined by Amand after a difficult start that made him drop from fourth to seventh. Once on the pace, the VDK Racing driver patiently overtook his rivals to take the lead from Dunne in the closing stages of the race. The Irish driver crossed the line 0.6 seconds behind the victor in front of Bedrin who was later penalized with two extra positions for what the marshals considered as a bad manoeuver during the competition. De Haan ended up in 4th place ahead of Bedrin and Antonelli.
In the championships standings, Thomas Ten Brinke (49) has only a six points advantage on Amand (43) and 11 on Dunne (38).
OK Junior Top 10
- Marcus Amand (Kosmic / IAME / Vega) + 54.461
- Alexander Dunne (Tony Kart / Vortex / Vega) + 0.679
- Thomas Ten Brinke (FA Kart / Vortex / Vega) + 2.672
- Robert De Haan (Energy Corse / TM Racing / Vega) + 2.793
- Nikita Bedrin (Tony Kart / Vortex / Vega) + 2.478
- Andrea Kimi Antonelli (KR / IAME / Vega) + 2.863
- Maceo Capietto (KR / IAME / Vega) + 6.424
- Arvid Lindblad (Exprit / TM Racing / Vega) + 6.471
- Suleiman Zanfari (Kosmic / IAME / Vega) + 7.254
- Enzo Scionti (Tony Kart / Vortex / Vega) + 8.307
Click here for the Final results in OK and OK Junior.
The third round of the FIA Karting European Championship – OK/Junior will unfold on the karting klubb of Kristianstad in Sweden from May, 30th to June 2nd.
Text: Guillaume Alvarez
Photos: Alex Vernardis
