- Text: Guillaume Alvarez
- Photos: FIA Karting
KZ
The 48 drivers of the top gearbox class took to the Lonato track at the end of the afternoon. As both the sunlight and the air temperatures were slowly dropping, track conditions turned out to be faster in Series 2 where the former KZ2 European Champion Adrien Renaudin (Sodi/TM) set the reference-lap in 46.104 seconds. Second-fastest in the same group, Alessandro Irlando (Birel ART/TM) conceded him 0.047 seconds and will join the Frenchman on the front row of the grid for the heats.
The Dutchman Marijn Kremers (Birel ART/TM) had previously topped the Series 1 but later dropped to third place overall, followed by Simo Puhakka (Tony Kart/Vortex) and Mirko Torsellini (KR/IAME). For his return in a World Championship event, Davide Forè (Intrepid/TM) ended with the 17th lap, two ranks before the reigning European Champion Jorrit Pex (KR/IAME).
KZ2
The KZ2 class, the most crowed of the event with 121 participants, kicked off the Qualifying Practices of the afternoon. Despite some traffic, Emilien Denner (Sodikart/TM) claimed the overall Pole position of the category thanks to a performance in 46.185 seconds in his second attempt against the stopwatch in the Qualifying Series 2.
Italy’s Giacomo Pollini (Formula K/TM) had set the early pace in Group 1 before Denner found the extra 0.052 seconds in the following series. The newly-crowned European Champion Emil Skaras (Energy Corse/TM) concluded the Qualifying credited with the third-best lap ahead of Senna Van Walstijn (KR/TM) and David Vidales Ajenjo (Tony Kart/Vortex). Having originally set the fifth-fastest lap, Thomas Landais (Sodi/TM) was later penalized with three positions (8th) for exceeding noise limits.
Academy Trophy
The Third and Final Round of the competition exclusively reserved for youngsters between 12 and 14 years old coming from 52 countries kicked off with Kajus Siksnelis (Lithuania) securing Pole position in the Second of the two Series. Two weeks after stepping on the third step of the podium at the FIA Karting World Junior Championship in Finland, the Lithuanian kept his momentum going at South Garda where his speed enabled him to precede Christian Ho (Singapore) on the timesheet.
Maxwell Dodds (Great Britain) came close to clinch the category’s fastest lap after Series 1 before having to make do with the third overall performance. Jacob Douglas (New-Zealand) ended up with the fourth-fastest lap in front of the provisional standings’ current leader Robert De Haan (Netherlands). His closest rival for this year’s title, Paolo Ferrari (Italy), took the 10th-best lap at the end of Qualifying. The other contenders for the crown, Oleksandr Partyshev (Ukraine) and Joshua Coertze (South Africa), set the 15th and 25th times respectively.
Click here to see the full Qualifying classification for KZ, KZ2, and Academy.
How to follow the event?
Like for every event in the FIA Karting calendar, The Racebox provides you with a special page featuring live timing and live streaming (from Saturday 09:55) plus our daily reports and social publications to keep you up to date with the results and info from Lonato!
| Saturday | 08:00 – 09:55 Warm-up 10:00 – 19:10 Qualifying Heats 13:23 – 13:45 Historic Karts Demo 1 16:30 – 16:50 Historic Karts Demo 2 |
| Sunday | 08:00 – 09:55 Warm-up 10:00 – 10:20 Historic Karts Demo 3 10:25 – 13:00 Qualifying Heats 10:30 – 12:25 Qualifying Heats 14:40 – 15:00 Historic Karts Demo 4 15:00 KZ2 Build-up & Final 15:55 Academy Trophy Build-up & Final 16:45 KZ Build-up & Final 18:00 Press Conference |
- Read here our Guide to the World Championship
- We interviewed karting legend Davide Forè
