Compétition

OK: a spectacular Final won by McLaughlin

The rain cleared and the skies lightened slightly for the OK Final of the Champions of the Future Euro Series, but the Valencia track remained waterlogged. Zac Drummond (Parolin/TM) took the lead into Turn 1, with Gabriel Gomez (CRG/Iame) making an incursion off the track and ending up 6th. Joe Turney (KR/Iame) moved up to P2 followed by Anatoly Khavalkin (Parolin/TM), Fionn McLaughlin (KR/Iame) 4th and Thibaut Ramaekers (KR/Iame) 5th. Adam Rahali (KR/Iame) and Kai Rillaerts (Sodi/TM) failed to finish the first lap. Oleksandr Bondarev (KR/Iame) came back to 5th while Turney, under investigation, took P1. McLaughlin followed in 2nd ahead of Khavalkin and Drummond. Ean Eyckmans (Birel ART/TM) had moved up to 8th (+8 places) ahead of Ramaekers. Bondarev overtook Drummond for 4th place, soon followed by Gomez. McLaughlin attacked Turney for the lead, but the Englishman fought back against the Irishman as Bondarev moved up to 3rd. Turney regained control, encouraging McLaughlin to visit the grass. This did Bondarev good, as he was extremely fast at the time. Halfway through the race, the battle for P2 intensified between McLaughlin and Bondarev. Gomez was about to join the final battle with Eyckmans 5th. Bondarev was losing pace and then Gomez was back in 3rd. McLaughlin kept closing on the leader Turney and attacked him on the 17th lap. Eyckmans came back strongly on Bondarev and took 4th place on the penultimate lap, while Gomez managed to overtake Turney for P2. McLaughlin won by 2.7″. The final lap was epic for 2nd position. Gomez secured 2nd place, but a penalty relegated him to 3rd and Bondarev took 2nd, while Turney failed to cross the line after a solitary spin. Khavalkin was 4th, Eyckmans 5th (+11) places with a 10″ penalty. Drummond took 6th place ahead of Noah Wolfe (Birel ART/TM) with an unhooked spoiler (+14 places). Ramaekers finished 10th, Andy Consani (Sodi/TM) 21st and Louis Iglesias (CRG/Iame) 25th with a 10″ penalty.