Photo: Ida Wood
Kenzo Craigie led a Prema and Mercedes-AMG Formula 1 junior one-two in the OK Junior final of the Karting World Championship, which was decided by a final corner crash.
It started raining shortly before the final, prompting the field to switch to karts that were already prepared with wet set-ups.
The conditions caught out Harrison Mackie on the formation lap, with the Fusion Motorsport driver having been set to start sixth. Filling the front row were DPK Racing’s Niklas Schaufler and Craigie, with Noah Baglin (Prema), Roman Kamyab (Ricky Flynn Motorsport) and James Anagnostiadis filling the next three positions.
Schaufler almost went off at hairpin one on the opening lap but somehow stayed in the lead, then at the penultimate corner he and Baglin did slide off the asphalt but with no consequence as they concluded the lap first and second.
Traction was a big issue for Schaufler, and he almost had another off on lap two when Baglin went wheel-to-wheel with him. They traded places multiple times, with Baglin starting lap three ahead and with Craigie and Fusion’s Kit Belofsky not too far behind in third and fourth as the rain worsened.
Craigie had a sideways moment and lost third but then dived back past, and up front Baglin began to pull away as he used more apex kerb than his rivals. As conditions got even tougher and drivers had to be more careful on the brakes, Craigie began to have the pace advantage and he was all over Schaufler by lap seven.
That prompted Schaufler to push, but it resulted in him almost going off due to a lack of traction again and on lap 11 Craigie swept past after a failed attempt the previous lap.
Baglin responded to his team-mate appearing behind him by setting two successive fastest laps, and it became a de facto Prema 1-2-3 on lap 12 as Schaufler spun down to sixth after Belofsky got close to him and Anagnostiadis moved into fourth behind the to-be penalised Belofsky.
With six laps to go there was 2.7s betwen the top two, but Craigie managed to close the gap by being later on the brakes through the first sector and wading through the water behind his team-mate for the rest of each lap.
He got within a second of Baglin with two laps to go, taking the fastest lap in the process, and Baglin’s slow approach into hairpin one meant another 0.4s was immediately eradicated from his lead.
They entered the decisive final lap 0.4s apart, and Craigie managed to get alongside on the run to hairpin one. Baglin left him no room on the outside, and at hairpin two Craigie was actually sent off the track but retained enough grip to rejoin the track still alongside his team-mate.
He tucked in behind for the chicane then coming to the next braking zone dived to the inside of Baglin, who was sent wide. Both went off exiting the corner, and Craigie was ahead. Baglin then pulled off a switchback move at the penultimate corner, but had not fully cleared Craigie as he turned into the final corner and the pair collided.
Craigie was provisionally victorious, but it took several hours for stewards to determine the final results. Such were the gaps in the rain that Belofsky’s double penalty only dropped him from second to fourth, with Anagnostiadis runner-up and Victory Lane’s new Red Bull junior Rocco Coronel being promoted to third.