It was the first sunny morning at Alahärmä on Saturday 22nd July for Qualifying for the CIK-FIA European Championship. The 57 OK-Junior drivers opened the match with their first session dominated early on by Paul Aron (FA Kart / Vortex) with 45”319, three thousandths ahead of Jules Mettetal (Kosmic / Parilla) was not worried. Navalon Boya (Kosmic / Parilla) finished 3rd by 7 thousandths, then came Gabriele Bortoleto (CRG / Parilla), Mattia Michelotto (Zanardi / Parilla) and Ilya Morozov (Tony Kart / Vortex) in 6th by only 0.022” from 1st.
In the second session, Matias Salonen (Kosmic / Vortex) was ahead of Uhro Niemimen (Kosmic / Vortex), the two Finnish drivers left the pits very early to start the second session. Then Jimi Hannus (Tony Kart / Vortex) upped the pace against Harry Thompson (FA Kart / Vortex) and Donar Munding (CRG / Parilla), but the order hadn’t solidified yet. Francesco Sagera (CRG / Parilla) attacked and surpassed the performance of Aron, leader S1 with 45”279. But it was Thompson who posted 45”555 followed by Dino Beganovic (Tony Kart / Vortex) and Nikolas Pirttilahti (Kosmic / Vortex) by 0.153”. Gillian Henrion (Tony Kart / Vortex) finished a long way back, Loris Cabirou (Sodi / TM) even further.
The drivers of the third session waited for the last moment to enter the scene. Jake Doohan (FA Kart / Vortex), Hadrien David (Zanardi / Parilla) and Jonny Edgar (Exprit / TM) quickly occupied the top three after two laps. Doohan proved unbeatable on 44”883, despite Edgar’s efforts to get closer by 0.235”. Viktor Gustafsson (Tony Kart / Vortex) was 3rd ahead of David and Zak O’Sullivan (FA Kart / Vortex).
The sessions got faster and faster, but not enough to apply the 101% rule. Pole went to Doohan ahead of Thompson and Edgar.
Info Kartcom / © Photo KSP