Competition

Macau, Saturday: De Brabander Double in KF1 – Nielsen likewise in KF3

Belgium’s Yannick De Brabander (Parolin-TM) scored two impressive race victories to gain a psychological advantage over his rivals before tomorrow’s Finals. The Belgian had been narrowly beaten in Qualifying Practice by Italian Flavio Camponeschi (Tony Kart-Vortex) by just 0.015 of a second. So he conceded Pole Position to the World No. 3 and made […]

International FIA Karting

Macau, Saturday: De Brabander Double in KF1 – Nielsen likewise in KF3

But the 13 laps race distance of the KF1 Heats was more than sufficient for De Brabander to quietly work his way forward and take impressive victories over the Italian. Indeed, late in Heat 2, Camponeschi conceded 2nd place to Spaniard Pedro Hiltbrand (Kosmic-Vortex) who was obliged to start from the back row. Impressive in the preliminaries, Hiltbrand had not completed a single lap of Qualifying Practice when his kart burst into flames!! He had driven through to 6th place in Heat 1 but his Heat 2 drive was an even better effort.

Japan’s Daiki Sasaki (Birel-Parilla) had qualified 3rd fastest and finished the first race in 3rd place, but 6th in Heat 2 was a disappointment. Felice Tiene (CRG-Maxter) led Heat one briefly and was second for a while in Heat two, but ended the day with two 5th places. Jordan Lennox-Lamb (CRG-Maxter) had been quite unimpressive in the preliminaries but drove well for two 4th places in the Heats.

But the star was De Brabander, yet he said it had not been expected. ‘Completely surprised’ was his assessment of his 2 victories adding ‘it’s a long time since I drove with this carburettor and it took time to become familiar with it. I think that explains my poor starts.’

In the KF3 championship, Danish driver Nicklas Nielsen (Tony Kart-Vortex) was another double winner, but his victories were far more emphatic. He had led Qualifying Practice until Hong Kong’s Matthew Solomon (Intrepid-TM) produced an effort 0.062 of a second quicker on his very last lap to steal pole position. But it did not matter to the Dane when the two races began. He was quickly into the lead and on each occasion he was never headed again. Solomon followed him home in Heat 1 but fell back to 8th in Heat 2 before repairing some of the damage with a 5th place finish.

Local driver Wing Chung Chang from Macau (Tony Kart-Vortex) was disappointing finishing just 7th in Heat 1, but a superb drive in Heat 2 saw him come second. Italian Alessio Piccini (Tony Kart-Vortex) was consistent with two 3rd places but Japan’s Teruhisa Tanaka (Maddox-Parilla) spoiled his race one 4th place with an 11th place in Heat 2! Likewise, Italian Andrea Russo (Kosmic-Vortex) followed 5th in Heat 1 with 12th in Heat 2! Yuta Shiraishi of Japan (Tony Kart-Vortex) was more consistent with 4th and 6th place finishes.

The final Qualifying Heats for both classes are on Sunday morning. The two Pre-Finals begin the afternoon race programme, whilst the Finals, the races that determine the championships, will conclude the day’s action and, indeed, the 2011 CIK-FIA season.

Info & Photo CIK

Publié le 11/12/2011