Compétition

Taoufik majestically wins the Final at Alahärmä

The sun was still out until the last Final at Alahärmä, that of the OKs for the fourth round of the European Championship. Sami Taoufik (FA Kart / Vortex) made an exceptional start from 7th to 1st in front of Pedro Hiltbrand (Tony Kart / Vortex), Pavel Bulantsev (Tony Kart / Vortex), David Schumacher (Tony Kart / Vortex) and Paavo Tonteri (Tony Kart / Vortex). While in 7th, Dennis Hauger (CRG / Parilla) came off the track, perhaps not of his own initiative. Ulysses De Pauw (Kosmic / Parilla) also gave up. Taoufik resisted Bulantsev more and more urgently. Juho Valtanen (Kosmic / Vortex) and Clément Novalak (Tony Kart / Vortex) crashed, but managed to restart. Tonteri got the better of Hiltbrand for 3rd place, then took 2nd in front of Bulantsev.

At the halfway point, Taoufik was still leading by 5 tenths, but the top five were grouped together, with Niklas Kruetten (FA Kart / Vortex) joining the bunch. Contrary to what one would imagine, it was not Tonteri, but Bulantsev that passed Taoufik in the 20th of the 25 laps. The young Moroccan recovered the lead on the following lap and distanced his opponents by a few tenths more. Taoufik won after a superb fight against Bulantsev and Hiltbrand, then Kruetten and Tonteri. Lorenzo Travisanutto (Zanardi / Parilla) was back in 6th place ahead of Schumacher and Théo Nouet (Energy / Parilla) back up 10 places. David Vidales (Tony Kart / Vortex) and Théo Pourchaire (Kosmic / Vortex) completed the top 10 without really shining this weekend.