The German Schmitz is the main favourite to the final victory in KZ2, the
Swede Smolyar in OK, challenge between the Russian Shvetsov and the Dane
Watt in OK Junior, the Russian Fomin leading several Italians in 60 Mini.
The first official indications arrived at the South Garda Karting of Lonato ahead of the final
stages of the 27th Andrea Margutti Trophy, the historic event organized by Parma Karting,
that saw a good participation of 157 drivers to remember the driver from Rome that passed away on October 14th 1989 in Parma.
Qualifying heats on Saturday afternoon followed qualifying held in the morning, and highlighted the main protagonists of this great international karting event valid for the four categories KZ2, OK, OK
Junior and 60 Mini.
The pole position of KZ2 was set by the Swedish driver Douglas Lundberg on Mach1-Tm, who posted the best absolute time of group-1 in 45.602s, while the Italian Giacomo Pollini, on CRGTm, was just a few hundredths of a second shy of the pole setting the quickest time of group-2 in 45.623s. The third absolute quickest time was set by the German Alexander Schmitz, who, as last year when he was third in the Final, has been driving a Tony Kart-Vortex kart run by team KSM of former F1 driver Ralf Schumacher.
The victory in the first of the three heats went to Pollini, who was followed by Lundberg and by the German Daniel Stell (CRG-Modena), as Mirko Torsellini claimed a good fourth on Exprit, while Leonardo Lorandi on Tony Kart had to retire due to an engine failure, when he was among the front runners. The second heat was won by Schmitz from Pollini to the young Italian of Maranello Kart Tommaso Mosca. Other protagonists like Alessandro Pelizzari (CKR-Tm), Alberto Cavalieri (Maranello-Modena), Massimo Dante (Maranello-Tm) and Loris Spinelli (Parolin-Tm) ended close to the top 3. The German Schmitz managed to win also the third heat and in the occasion he led Cavalieri, Mosca, Pelizzari and Dante. Thanks to the two victories, Schmitz will enjoy a pole position start in the Prefinal of Sunday and put his name forward as the main candidate to the victory in KZ2. The top ten on the starting grid: 2. Pollini, 3. Mosca; 4.Cavalieri, 5. Pelizzari, 6. Dante, 7. Carlton, 8. Zanchi, 9. Stell, 10. Palomba.
The Swedish driver of Ward Racing Alexander Smolyar (Tony Kart-Vortex) has dominated
category OK. He set the pole position and took the three wins in the heats, always leading the Danish driver Emil Dose of KSB Racing on Kosmic-Vortex. Qualifying Heats: 1. Smolyar, 2. Dose, 3. Ohlin, 4. Travkinov, 5. Damlund, 6. Hansen, 7. Valler, 8. Lassen.
After the strong performances put in by the Danish driver of Baby Race Noah Watt on Tony Kart-Vortex, who posted the quickest time of OK Junior in 47.778s, and by the Brazilian Gianluca Petecof, who was quickest of group-2 in 47.982s at the debut on CRG-Parilla, the Russian Ivan Shvetsov won his two heats on Tony Kart-Vortex run by Ward Racing, leading Watt and Petecof in the first and the Spanish Civico Genis (Croc-Tm) and the Swedish Hampus Ericson (Tony Kart-Vortex) in the second. The third heat was won by Watt, who led the Russian Ilya Morozov (Tony Kart-Vortex) and Yuriy Dzitiev (Tony Kart-Vortex). Qualifying Heats: 1. Shvetsov, 2. Watt, 3. Ericsson, 4. Fetisov, 5. Petecof, 6. Genis, 7. Giardelli, 8. Bulantsev, 9. Zheng, 10. Eteki.
In the 6 heats of 60 Mini the victory went to the Russian Rusian Fomin (Tony Kart-Tm) in three occasions, to Alessandro Cenedese (Tony Kart-Tm) twice, and to Andrea Antonelli (Exprit-Tm) once. Qualifying Heats: 1. Fomin, 2. Cenedese, 3. Mallet, 4. Pizzi, 5. Bosco, 6. Urbeltz, 7. Antonelli, 8. Villa, 9. Skocdopole, 10. Camplese.
The final stages will take place on Sunday 13 March starting from second chance races, Prefinals and Finals for all categories.
The programme (CET):
Sunday 13 March:
Warm Up from 8:30hrs.
Second chance races from 10:30hrs.
Prefinal OK: at 11.30hrs.
Drivers presentation: at 12.30hrs.
Prefinals at 13:30hrs (Mini); at 13:50hrs (OKJ); at 14:20hrs (KZ2).
Finals at 14:50hrs (Mini); at 15:20hrs (OKJ); at 15:50hrs (OK); at 16:25hrs (KZ2).
Prize Ceremonies from 17:30hrs.
Info, results, Live Timing and Live Streaming will be available at www.trofeomargutti.com