Academy, Lappalainen the great tactician

Leader of the Academy Trophy before arriving in Bahrain for the third and last meeting, Joonas Lappalainen proved his great maturity to take the title under the floodlights.

Finishing the two Races in 4th and 6th places, the Finn managed the end of his season perfectly. “In Race 1 I fought for the victory, but I saw that my main rivals could not score major points,” he recalled. “So I didn’t want to take too many risks in the sprint final and I was happy with 4th place. In the second confrontation, I was involved in a scramble in the first bend and I was only 15th after the first lap. I then set to making a fight-back, and I passed the chequered flag in 6th place, my worst result of the season. In the Final, I think I was extremely consistent and I had been among the leaders in every event.”
 
Joonas Lappalainen’s title was all the more undeniable since the Spaniard Javier Cobian, second in the competition, could do no better than 10th and 16th places. For his part, George Russell had a weekend to be rapidly forgotten. Leaving the track at the start of Race 1, trying to keep up with Lappalainen and the Russian Alexander Maslennikov, the Briton was forced to abandon. He then had to abandon the second Race too, and dropped back to 10th place in the final classification.

These two Races fought in Bahrain will be remembered for the splendid double by Thomas Michael Bale, the representative of the National Federation of the United Arab Emirates. “I live an hour away from here by air,” the young man smiled, becoming the first winner of a CIK-FIA Race for his country. “And this event was really my home race. So I am more than happy!”
 
In the first Race, Bale was joined on the podium by the Russian Alexander Maslennikov and the Norvegian Martin Ellegard. Behind Joonas Lappalainen, at the foot of the podium, the Dutchman Martijn Van Leeuwen rightly led the Belgian Benjamin Lessennes. Also in the Top 10 were the Frenchman Erwan Julé, the Brazilian Giuliano Raucci, the Swede Lina Von Schedvin and the Spaniard Javier Cobian.
 

In the second Race, it was the Frenchman Erwan Julé, racing from a superb start to 2nd position, who finished in the wake of Thomas Michael Bale. Martijn Van Leeuwen confirmed his good result in the first confrontation with a podium place ahead of Lina Von Schedvin, Benjamin Lessennes, Joonas Lappalainen, the French girl Adeline Prudent, the second female Driver, the Belgian Amaury Bonduel, Martin Ellegard and the German Christopher Dreypsing.
 
Profiting from this weekend in the Middle East, Erwan Julé took the third step on the Championship podium behind Joonas Lappalainen and Javier Cobian. In 4th place was Thomas Michael Bale, who led Benjamin Lessennes, Martin Ellegard, Martijn Van Leeuwen, the Frenchman Paolo Besancenez, Adeline Prudent and George Russell.
 

Info CIK / © Photo KSP