NEWS

The 1st race was enlived by the duel between Renaudie and De Brabander, then the rises of Vainio and Rowland. Manu Renaudie (Gillard / Parilla) took off in the lead from the start, but Yannick De Brabander (Intrepid / TM) was dangerously close on the 3rd lap. Jason Parrott (Birel / Parilla) in 3rd made a beautiful start, encouraging after his worries in his equipment development so far. Aaro Vainio (Maranello / Maxter) was not far off in 4th position. Lindholm was ahead of Benjamin and Ryall.

De Brabander passed Renaudie on lap 4 and Vainio got ahead of Parrott. Renaudie was not at all far from De Brabander. By mid-race, Oliver Rowland (LH / Maxter) had gained back ground on his opponents and soon took fifth, ahead of Parrott. Vainio closed on the top 2. Renaudie watched the lines of the leader De Brabander and attacked on the inside. The final lap was expected to belong to the 3 drivers Renaudie, De Brabander and Vainio.

In fact, Rowland mixed up the story on the last lap and managed to surprise De Brabander on the last curve and was ahead by 0.028s on the line, giving him the 1st podium for the LH chassis. The experienced Manu Renaudie took the win, while Aaro Vainio was in second place.

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It was not a true duel between Nyck De Vries and Carlos Sainz, since the Dutchman took the advantage over the Spaniard on the 1st lap. The gap remained thin during three quarters of the race and Nyck won finally 3.8s ahead of Carlos. It looked like he slowed on the last lap to finish 3rd and be rather better placed for the final, but it was in vain. The 1st lap eliminated Gerard Barrabeig and Mathieu Jaminet at the bottom of the circuit after quite a start from the top drivers. Raffaele Marciello quickly took 3rd place, successively overcoming Guilherme Silva and Gustavo Menezes.

The race was relatively calm at the front but restless in the 2 parts of the chasing pack. After a superb start, Pierre Gasly at first moved up to 14th position, then his machine forced him to let everyone past to finish 25th. The race was more than satisfactory for Rémy Deguffroy, who started from 20th and finished 12th, driving consistently. Colomé was the last qualifier but brilliantly came through to 15th. King clashed with Elkerbout and finished 28th and last on the track.

Did Carlos Sainz run his race to save his tyres? Does Nyck de Vries have more in reserve? Answers to follow from 15:30 on the dot.

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De Vries, Barrabeig, Sainz, top three of the intermediate classification was not surprising. Despite the vicissitudes of the KF3 qualifying heats, speeding at the start and departures from the track to the dust, the favorites are in place for the great battle of the European Championship. Kvyat is not far off, in 6th position. Everything will be played for at the start, and there will be a lot of overtaking before the finish line.

Mathieu Jaminet, as usual the best French driver, still had an injured leg after a clash in the last heat ... He will start 11th in the pre-final, which is a relative disappointment for him. There was a big surprise for Rémy Deguffroy who has been fast qualifying in 16th place is remarkable. Pierre Gasly is the last French driver to qualify in 32nd, after having some good fights to compensate for his lack of power. There was disappointment for Alex Baron, very fast in recent races, but who pays dearly for his battery problem in the first heat. John Filippi showed amazing speed and maturity in relation to his very short racing experience: he was near to qualifying with 40th.

As usual in this kind of competition, many good drivers will not be in the final: Sorensen, Agostini, Heche, Makau, Abreu, Schmidt, Gil, Dalewski ... the list is long.

The appointment is at 13:30 for the start of the pre-final.

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The temperature is already very high on Sunday morning for the warm-up for the Super KF European Championship at Zuera. Oliver Rowland has dominated the competition with a time of 1'00''130. He quietly leads Miika Kunranta and Daniel Lindholm. Yannick De Brabander was fourth fastest, 28 hundredths behind. Ryall was 6th, Vainio, obviously not happy, was 7th ahead of Benjamin. Renaudie was 10th, Parrott 14th, Puhakka 15th and Groman 17th.

The heat is really expected to settle on the Aragonese circuit for race 1 at 14:15.

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L'aura du championnat d'Europe a été mise à mal samedi soir à cause de la tenue d'un évènement exceptionnel qui a mobilisé la majorité de la presse internationale. A l'heure actuelle, la CIK n'a pas encore réagi à cette menace, sans doute terrassée par l'incroyable nouvelle.

Que s'est-il passé au juste ?

C'est tout simple. Lassée des querelles qui minent le karting, une association de journalistes a décidé de faire sécession et de monter son propre championnat. Les règles en sont simples: matériel monotype, coût très maîtrisé,  tirage au sort, haut niveau de pilotage et forte médiatisation. Le concept, déjà expérimenté secrètement en Allemagne et en Bretagne, éclate au grand jour à Zuera.

La première épreuve de ce nouveau challenge international a réuni l'élite des pilotes/journalistes sur le tracé très technique de la piste de location de Zuera pour une manche de folie qui a mis en transe les nombreux spectateurs. "Enfin, on retrouve le vrai karting d'antan, pouvait-on entendre dans la foule. Super ! Génial ! Incroyable, mais vrai ! Quel spectacle ! Vivement la prochaine !" Telles ont été quelques-unes des innombrables réactions enthousiastes à l'issue de cette grande première.

A l'issue d'une course éprouvante, dans des conditions dantesques, c'est le jeune espoir belge Thomas Bastin qui remporte la victoire (grâce à un poids très favorable, il faut bien l'avouer) devant le régional de l'étape, Gregory Heirman, très en verve sur ses terres et le Français Philippe Kalmès, assoiffé de revanche: "J'étais vraiment bien dans les parties rapides, a-t-il confié à notre correspondant spécial, mais j'avais un problème de train avant qui m'a empêché de décrocher une victoire qui devait normalement me revenir !"

Comme d'habitude, l'équipe de télévision locale Eurosport a eu du mal a suivre le rythme malgré des déclarations tonitruantes avant le départ. Il faut dire que le niveau était particulièrement relevé. Cependant, 100 % des concurrents se sont montrés satsifaits du concept et 99 % d'entre eux sont prêts à sacrifier le reste de leurs économies pour terminer une saison qui s'annonce démoniaque.

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