Sasaki the master in qualifying

The weather was already warm and beautiful on Saturday morning at the Suzuka circuit, nearly 20 ° C at 8.30 with the sun beating down.

Some drivers were forced to spend the warm-up setting up their equipment on new tires, and there has been some breakages, including John Filippi on his first lap despite running the carburettor rich. In short, the situation wasnt clear before qualifying for the 2012 KF1 World Championship. Daiki Sasaki (Kosmic / Vortex) set the fastest time in warm-up with 47” 312, ahead of Flavio Camponeschi (Tony Kart / Vortex), Karol Basz (Birel / BMB), Pedro Hiltbrand (FA Kart / Vortex) and Max Verstappen (Intrepid / TM).

Qualifying was soon after the warm-up, with barely time to take the karts down to the paddock and back to the pit lane. The drivers in the first group waited until the last moment to go out on track, with time for one or two fast laps. Basz was the first to go under 48”. He then set a 47” 577, Hiltbrand countered with 47” 526. Mattia Vita (Birel / BMB) didn’t participate in the session. Pole in this group returned to Hiltbrand with 47” 372, ahead of Basz with 47” 382 and Christian Sorensen (LH / BMB) with 47” 496.

In the second group, Flavio Camponeschi (Tony Kart / Vortex) opened the scoring with 47” 902 in front of Kozlinski (PCR / TM). Felice Tiene (CRG / BMB) posted 47”521, Sasaki posted 47” 346, which was already the fastest time out of both groups. Camponeschi set the second fastest time, 47” 470, third was Verstappen, 47” 473, Tiene was fourth with 47” 511 and fifth was Joyner with 47” 524.

Pole therefore went to the Japanese driver Daiki Sasaki (Kosmic / Vortex), ahead of Pedro Hiltbrand (FA Kart / Vortex) and Karol Basz (Birel / BMB), Camponeschi fourth, Verstappen fifth, Sorensen 6th, Tiene 7th, Joyner (LH / BMB) 8th, Armand (Tony Kart / Vortex) 9th and Shiraishi (Sodi / TM) 10th. Kozlinski was 11th by 0.3” in front of De Brabander, Lennox-Lamb, Fore and Hubert, 15th.

Info Kartcom  / © Photo KSP