Qualifying for the FIA Karting European Championship began at Valencia on Friday lunchtime under partly cloudy skies and temperatures of 20°C. The 86 drivers v were divided into three sessions.
Session 1: Sambudla – 54”191
In Session 1, nothing was moving until the last 3’45. Fionn Mc Lauglin (KR/Iame) was the fastest on the first lap ahead of Tomass Stolcermanis (Energy/TM) and Martin Molnar (Energy/TM). Luviwe Sambudla (KR/Iame) took over on the second lap by a thousandth from Kean Nakamura-Berta (KR/Iame) and 29 thousandths from David Walther (Tony Kart/Vortex). The third lap did not bring any significant changes. Francesco Macedo (CRG/Iame) finished 4th ahead of Stolcermanis, Molnar, James Egozi (Tony Kart/Vortex), then Anatoly Khavalkin (Parolin/TM). Jimmy Hélias (Tony Kart/Vortex) finished 12th, Guillaume Bouzar (Tony Kart/Vortex) 14th and Andrea Dupé (Sodi/TM) 25th.
Session 2: Gomez – 54”023
The second session waited until there was only 3’30 to 3′ left to enter the track. On the first lap, Yuanpu Cui (KR/Iame) and Alex Powell (KR/Iame) were close behind in the lead ahead of Lenn Nijs (KR/Iame) and Arthur Poulain (Tony Kart/Vortex). Poulain was 2nd behind Powell on the second lap. But Gabriel Gomez (CRG/Iame) took the provisional pole on lap 3 with 54”023, relegating Powell to 0.134”. Poulain remained 3rd, 2 tenths behind Joe Turney (KR/Iame) and Ean Eyckmans (Tony Kart/Vortex). Jules Caranta (Energy/TM) was 7th just behind Cui.
Session 3: Tarnvanichkul – 54”062
Enzo Tarnvanichkul (KR/Iame) was the fastest on the first lap ahead of Nathan Tye (Sodi/TM). Jan Przyrowski (Tony Kart/Vortex) was 6 thousandths ahead of him on the second lap, while Rene Lammers (Parolin/TM) came in 3rd. Tarnvanichkul finished in the lead with a third lap of 54”062, 71 thousandths ahead of Przyrowski and 82 thousandths ahead of Lammers. Nicolo Cuman (Exprit/TM) followed in 4th ahead of Tye. Kirill Kutskov (KR/Iame) was 6th, Luigi Colucci (Tony Kart/Vortex) 7th and Malo Bolliet (KR/Iame) 9th.
Info Kartcom with Kartlink / Photo © KSP