Australian Cadet karter Sebastian Eskandari-Marandi scored a podium and William Calleja qualified P2 at the fourth round of the Italian Championship at Sarno last weekend.
Competing in Mini Under 10 with the Tony Kart Racing Team, Seb posted he felt it was a tough weekend. “We had great overall pace but in the hot conditions we just lacked that little bit down the end of the straights. And it doesn’t help being almost a foot taller then everyone.”
After qualifying fifth overall (“I didn’t quite get the tow I wanted, instead giving a good tow to four others behind me”), he carded third (“I was leading into the last corner, but didn’t get the drive out”) and 10th (“got driven off the track… dropped to 14th”) in the opening two heats, to be placed 11th overall.
“We started the first final from P11, but decided to use old tyres, while everybody was on a new set” he explained. “Managed to bring it home in 7th.”
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“Inverting the top 8 meant that we started from P2 with new tyres for the second final. At the start, I wasn’t going to let them push me wide and I held it in there and exited the first 3 right hand corners in P2. Had a good race and was leading most of the race, up until the start of the second to last lap. But just couldn’t keep it up there and finished 3rd.”
Meanwhile, Calleja (Babyrace/Parolin/IAME) topped his group in qualifying in the Mini class, but was second fastest overall, 0.15s off pole.
After two heat wins he had moved to P1 in the ranking. But then disaster struck, dropping out of the battle for the lead on lap five of the first final, down to P31. He then charged through from the rear to grab P9 in the second final.
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- full results HERE
