Photo: KSP Reportages
The CIK-FIA European Karting Championship concluded at Cremona last weekend with several title twists.
The senior-level OK karts topped the bill, with Reme Lammers – son of former Formula 1 racer Jan – leading by six points over 2022 Italian champion Gabriel Gomez and 43 points over Mercedes-AMG F1 junior Alex Powell.
Lammers started off strongly, qualifying second behind Louis Iglesias and with Prema’s Enzo Tarnvanichkul in third.
Iglesias could only convert his pace into one heat podium, while Lammers won four heats, Tarnvanichkul won three and both Luigi Collucio and Fionn McLaughlin won two.
Lammers then led lights-to-flag in super-heat one, with Alpine junior Kean Nakamura Berta in second and Powell in third, while Tarnvanichkul won super-heat two and Gomez finished fifth. That meant Gomez started 12th on the final’s grid, while Lammers had pole.
Drivers not being in formation meant three laps ran before the rolling start actually took place, and there was immediate drama as Collucio went from fifth to second and a multi-kart crash led to one kater rolling.
There was a full course yellow called until lap five, and after Coluccio took the lead while Gomez fell to 17th. Nakamura Berta and Tarnvanichkul soon passed Lammers, but had already been gapped by Coluccio. Lammers had a points gap where he did not need to worry about losing places.
Red Bull junior Tarnvahichkul moved back into second on lap 11 and stayed there behind Coluccio. Gomez gained from three karters ahead being penalised to finish 13th, but with Lammers fourth the latter comfortably claimed the title.
It was similar in OK-Junior, as Sacha Bondarev arrived with a 42-point lead and left as champion by 11 points.
His chief rival Thibaut Ramaekers took pole ahead of Dries Van Langendonck, with Bondarev 10th fastest in his qualifying group. But he immediately rebounded by winning the first heat.
Ramaekers won three heats, Van Langendonck, Christian Costoya, Alfie Slater and Iacopo Martinese each won two, and title outsider Lewis Wherrell won the final one.
Bondarev came from fourth to beat Ramaekers to super-heat one victory, and Martinese won super-heat two. That put Ramaekers on final pole, with Bondarev starting fourth.
Martinese took the lead from Ramaekers on lap five of the final, but he regained it with three laps remaining to win with fastest lap. It was not enough deny Bondarev, whose third place made him champion. Wherrell was disqualified over a collision.
The spec junior-level FIA Karting Academy Trophy concluded its three-round season on the support bill. Max Walton led by 15 points on Thursday, but lost the six-way title fight by 21 points to Hugo Marti.
Wotjek Woda was the star of the weekend, beating Marti to pole, winning three heats (as Marti won two) and the final.
Marti took the final lead from Woda on lap three and pulled away, but was drawn back in and after losing the lead on lap seven he had several scuffles for position, eventually losing all of them to finish sixth.
But with Walton ninth in his qualifying group, 10th on average in the heats and 25th in the final (after a penalty for causing an incident undid his early 17th to seventh charge), Marti basically had the title wrapped up already before the final.
Results round-up
OK final (25 laps)
1 Luigi Coluccio Tony Kart 21m02.410s
2 Enzo Tarnvanichhul Prema +1.508s
3 Kean Nakamura Berta Prema +2.154s
4 Rene Lammers Parolin +2.896s
5 Alex Powell Prema +4.378s
6 Fionn McLaughlin VDK Racing +8.411s
7 Tomass Stolcermanis Energy Corse +9.914s
8 Dmitry Mateev Kart Republic +10.096s
9 David Walther Koski Motorsport +11.492s
10 Ean Eyckmans Leclerc by Lennox Racing +11.657s
Pole: Lammers
Fastest lap: Lammers, 47.874s
Championship standings
1 Lammers 278 2 Gabriel Gomez 213 3 Powell 191 4 Stolceramnis 166 5 Nakamura Berta 147 6 Joe Turney 89 7 McLaughlin 84 8 Collucio 83 9 Tarnavanichkul 77 10 Nathan Tye 72
OK-Junior final (21 laps)
1 Thibaut Ramaekers VDK Racing 17m29.535s
2 Iacopo Martinese Kart Republic +0.811s
3 Sasha Bondarev Kart Republic +2.578s
4 Dries Van Langendonck Forza Racing +2.755s
5 Stepan Antonov Kart Republic +6.860s
6 Alfie Slater Ricky Flynn Motorsport +7.731s
7 Andy Consani Shamick Europe +8.321s
8 Niklas Schaufler DPK Racing +9.027s
9 Scott Lindblom Tony Kart +9.512s
10 Noah Monteiro Kart Republic +9.625s
P: Ramaekers
FL: Ramaekers, 49.174s
Standings
1 Bondarev 256 2 Ramaekers 245 3 Martinese 182 4 Lewis Wherrell 155 5 Van Langendonck 147 6 Christian Costoya 138 7 Zac Drummond 127 8 Antonov 88 9 Tiziano Monza 80 10 Elliot Kaczynski 68
FIA Karting Academy Trophy final (21 laps)
1 Wotjek Woda 17m53.490s
2 Lisa Billard +0.223s
3 Markas Silkunas +2.525s
4 Arthur Broughan +2.816s
5 Romeo Haagh +2.911s
6 Hugo Marti +3.829s
7 Rocco Coronel +7.560s
8 Santino Panetta +8.866s
9 Lorenzo Campos +9.119s
10 Simon Mayer +9.556s
P: Woda
FL: Haagh, 50.197s
Standings
1 Marti 111 2 Max Walton 90 3 Silkunas 85 4 Panetta 79 5 Marius Barry-Berg 74 6 Woda 72 7 Billard 71 8 Vasileios Apostolidis 59 9 Ryutaro Sato 57 10 Broughan 53