KF1 took the stage for the first race at Genk. On the front row Flavio Camponeschi (Tony Kart / Vortex), the pole sitter, and Karol Basz (RK / BMB), then Alexander Albon (Intrepid / TM) and Leo Roussel (Sodi / Parilla) were on the second row. We will of course pay attention to the expected recovery of Nyck De Vries (Zanardi / Parilla), starting from last place after his valve problem in qualifying.
Camponeschi took the lead on the first lap, the fight took place on the first corner: Deguffroy, Lock and Gromanova remained in the gravel, Roussel and De Ridder were delayed. Sébastien Bailly (Kosmic / Vortex) was fighting for second place with Albon. Jordon Lennox-Lamb (CRG / Maxter) went on the attack and stole second position, followed by Libor Toman (Birel / BMB) in third. Bailly returned shortly before the third Toman, Albon, Tiene and Pakari.
De Vries’s race went as planned, in 8th after a third of the race. Fastest on the track was Camponeschi 2.7” ahead of Lennox, himself to 3 seconds ahead of Bailly, closely followed by Albon. Roussel was back in the pack in 11th position after passing Anthoine Hubert. Albon overtook Bailly on the ninth lap, and De Vries took the opportunity to go fourth, but it was not he who held the fastest lap. Toman rose to fifth from Bailly, Basz, Roussel and Pakari, but the Belgian was soon to overtake Roussel!
The difference between Albon, in third, and De Vries, in fourth, stabilised for several laps around 1”, and the top 4 were spaced out from each other. Toman dropped to 17th position, and D’Agosto and Basz retired. Roussel attacked Bailly for fifth place, which also benefited Kanamaru. Camponeschi won from Lennox-Lamb and Albon. De Vries finished fourth after a big recovery, Roussel was in fifth position. Note that the race was marked, especially in the early laps, by an impressive number of skirmishes, a surprising result for the KF1 …
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