Oscar Strong In Sweden
| 26 July 2015 |
| Tweet | |
After qualifying an excellent 11th (in a field of 75!), Victoria's Oscar Piastri has carded a 5th, 12th (spun in the wet), 21st (hit with a penalty - Oscar said he "got hit from behind and spun back to last". He recovered to 17th but received a penalty for dislodged nosecone) and 5th in the qualifying heats at the third and final round of the European KF Junior Championship in Sweden.
The effort sees him ranked 18th overall. If not for the penalty (we hear there have been around 30 time penalties issued in the tricky conditions) he would have comfortably been in the top ten.
Oscar will start from grid 9 for tonight's (local time) pre-final B. The top 17 from each pre-final transfer to the Final.
- Follow Oscar via the live timing and stream HERE (pre-final 'B' is scheduled for 8:05pm AEST)
Above: Saturday morning warm-up for Oscar and his mechanic
pic - Salvestrin
press release - Friday qualifying
The pole-sitters of the European CIK-FIA KF and KFJ Championship at the Asum Ring in Kristianstad are Nielsen (DK – Tony Kart-Vortex KF) and Roosens (B – Kosmic-Parilla KFJ).
A heated finale in Kristianstad
Today's qualifying at the Asum Ring in Kristianstad (S) said that the race to the European KF and KF Junior titles is going to be unmissable. The Swedish facility is hosting the last round of the CIK-FIA Championship and the first results on track were rather surprising if compared to the current standings of the Championship. The great skills of the participants is going to make the result of Sunday's finals totally unpredictable.
Above: Fastest Junior, Kenny Roosens
pic - Gabiphotos/Press.net Images
Nielsen grabs the pole in KF
The Danish Nicklas Nielsen (Tony Kart-Vortex-Vega) comes back to the top of the KF category and grabs the pole position thanks to his 50”678, 0”108 faster than the Russian Alex Vartanyan (Tony Kart-Vortex), second, and 193 milliseconds better than the Polish Karol Basz (Kosmic-Vortex-Vega) in third position. There is a new name among the top positions: it is the German Hannes Janker’s (CRG-Parrilla-Vega) one. He sets the fourth time with 50”914, ahead of one of the favourites in the race to the title, the English Tom Joyner (Zanardi-TM-Vega), who places fifth. Only tenth position for the current leader of the Championship, the British Benjamin Hanley (Croc-TM-Vega), nearly four tenths of a second behind Nielsen. In tomorrow’s heats, Joyner and Hanley will race in the same group: a further element which will make the battle for the 2015 European title even spicer.
Above: Fastest KF Senior, Nicklas Nielsen
pic - Gabiphotos/Press.net Images
Roosens attacks in KFJ
The current leader of the KF Junior attacks immediately and sets the fastest lap. In fact, it is the Belgian Kenny Roosens (Kosmic-Parilla-LeCont) the pole-sitter thanks to his 51”777. It is clear that he wants to keep at bay his opponents, who will need to close a futher gap if they want to keep Roosens’ pace. The English Clement Novalak (Tony Kart-Vortex-LeCont), second in the Championship, only sets the 17th time, while the Indonesian Presley Martono (Tony Kart-Vortex) and the Danish Christian Lundgaard (Tony Kart-Vortex), 3rd and 4th in the Championship, are behind a group of four drivers eager to take centre stage in tomorrow’s heats.
From the 2nd position onward we find the Swedish Rasmus Lindh (Ricciardo-Parilla), the Brazilian Felipe Drugovich (Kosmic-Vortex), the Spanish Marta Garcia and the Chinese Sun Yueyang (both on FA Kart-TM). Today’s results have definitely made the final output of Sunday's races even more uncertain.
Above: Impressive pit complex at the Asum Ring in Kristianstad, Sweden
pic - Salvestrin
press release - Saturday heats
The CIK-FIA European KF and KFJ Championship is going to be spectacular: in the final round in Kristianstad, Hanley (GB – Croc-TM KF) and Yueyang (CN – FA Kart-Vortex KFJ) are in pole position.
All ready in Kristianstad for the big day
The top drivers are in pursuit: this is the perfect summary of today’s results at the Asum Ring in Kristianstad, which is hosting the final round of the CIK-FIA European KF and KF Junior Championship. In the latter category, the output of the heats tells a story which is totally different from the one which has been told so far in the Championship: in fact, the current leader, Kenny Roosens, will need to close a rather wide gap if he wants to win the title. In KF the battle is between the two top drivers, the English Ben Hanley and Tom Joyner, separated by very few points.
Hanley defends his leadership in KF and grabs the pole
Ben Hanley (Croc-TM-Vega), the current leader of the KF championship, managed to redeem himself after the poor performance in qualifying. Thanks to three victories, the Brit will be the pole-sitter in the Prefinal ahead of the Dutch Richard Verschoor (Exprit-Vortex-Vega), who will start in the front row thanks to a victory. The other favourite in the race for the title, the English Tom Joyner (Zanardi-TM-Vega), will start from the second row.
Joyner won one of the heats and will start next to the Italian Felice Tiene, who has been very consistent so far. Third row for the Danish Nicklas Nielsen (Tony Kart-Vortex-Vega) and the Polish Karol Basz (Kosmic-Vortex-Vega): they both won twice. With Hanley and Joyner – divided by only five points - so close on the starting grid, the race for the title is going to be very uncertain and there are expectations for a head-to-head battle.
Above: Ben Hanley
pic - Press.net Images
Yueyang grabs the pole: great battle in KFJ for the leadership
The surprising Chinese driver Sun Yueyang (FA Kart-Vortex-LeCont), with three victories in the Heats, clinges the pole. Today, all the top drivers didn’t seem at their ease on the Swedish track: the leader of the Championship, the Belgian Kenny Roosens (Kosmic-Parilla-LeCont), was not very lucky and only managed to score the 43rd position. The same could be said about the English Clement Novalak (Tony Kart-Vortex-LeCont), who scored the 22nd position. Only the Indonesian Presley Martono (Tony Kart-Vortex) and the Danish Christian Lundgaard (Tony Kart-Vortex), the third and the fourth in the Championship, managed to score top ten positions and they will fill the 8th and the 9th slot on the grid.
On Yueyang’s big day, it was the Venezuelan Sebastian Fernandez (FA Kart-Vortex) who managed to make himself conspicuous: he placed second ahead of the excellent Marta Garcia (FA Kart-TM) and Ivan Shvetsov (Tony Kart-Vortex). These drivers are not going to take part in the battle for the Championship but, anyway, they will play a crucial role in the two Prefinals on schedule tomorrow: Yueyang and Garcia will occupy the front row in the Prefinal A, while Fernandez and Shvetsov will be on the front row in the Prefinal B.
Above: Sun Yueyang
pic - Press.net Images
