The Russian Seva Gagen (Parolin) impressed in the first session of qualifying in the U18 World Championship in Bahrain on Friday in the middle of the day. He securely held the lead and went even better on the last lap with a lap of 55” 244, almost three tenths faster than the Dutch Joel Affolter (Intrepid), while the French Antoine Rocard (Sodi) repeated his exploits, finishing third from the British driver Henry Easthope (Sodi), 0.335” from the pole. There was a good performance also for the Oman driver Suleiman Al Rawahi (DR), in fifth ahead of Jacob Parsons (Top Kart) and Ben Barnicoat (ART GP).
Away from the amazing performance of Gagen in the first group, Sam Webster (ART GP) was the fastest in group 2 at 55” 425, ahead of Ricky Collard (ART GP) by 0.014″ and Hubert Petit (Sodi) was third by 0.89” on the last lap. The Spanish German Villanueva (Formula K) took fourth position ahead of Joseph Mawson (Top Kart) and Nicholas Surguladze, the Georgian (Zanardi).
The differences were even tighter in the third group with the top 5 drivers grouped in less than a tenth. The French driver Anthoine Hubert (Formula K) was the fastest of the group with a time of 55” 375 ahead of the Dane Kasper Larsen (Zanardi) and the Italian Federico Savona (Top Kart) in a long battle for pole. The Briton Matthew Graham (Zanardi) confirmed his renewed performance with fourth ahead of the Russian Dmitry Dlougy (MS Kart). The Monegasque Charles Leclerc (ART GP) set the seventh time in his group at 0.131″ off the leader.
Gagen was fastest overall ahead of Hubert and Webster, Collard 4th, Larsen 5th, Savona 6th, Graham 7th, Dlougy 8th, Kuusiniemi 9th, Leclerc 10th and Hubert Petit 11th. Easthope finally took 18th position.
Info Kartcom with Kartlink / © Photo KSP