Compétition

Sensational win for Marcus Amand ar Genk

The weather was hot and heavy during the presentation of the finalists of the FIA Karting European Championship – Junior at Genk. The rain did not seem to threaten the race. After the last hard-fought Qualifying Heats, the starting grid for the Final was Nikita Bedrin (Tony Kart / Vortex) and Alexander Dunne (Tony Kart / Vortex), two factory drivers on the front row. Thomas Ten Brinke (FA Kart / Vortex) for RFM and Marcus Amand (Kosmic / Iame) with VDK Racing were on the second row ahead of Enzo Scionti (Tony Kart / Vortex) from Ward Racing and Robert De Haan (Energy / TM) from Energy Corse. KR Motorsport driver Macéo Capietto (KR / Iame) followed on the fourth row alongside Arvid Lindblad (Exprit / TM) of Forza Racing.

Behind Bedrin, Dunne and Ten Brinke, De Haan was 4th on the first lap ahead of Scionti, Lindblad, Amand and Capietto. Ten Brinke took the lead on the third lap in front of Dunne, Amand was 4th in front of De Haan and Andrea Kimi Antonelli (KR / Iame) was already 6th (+ 6pl). Dunne took 1st place on lap five in front of Ten Brinke and Amand, but Bedrin and De Hann remained threatening in the top five away from the pack: in 6th, Antonelli was 2″ behind, but pushed to reduce the lead. Elliott Vayron (Birel ART / TM) had given up.

The second part of the 19-lap race opened with Dunne’s leadership, followed by Ten Brinke and Bedrin, then Amand and De Haan. Antonelli had already cut his gap in half and was setting successive fastest laps. Amand was 2nd and Ten Brinke was 5th. RFM lost Christian Ho, apparently with a seize on the main straight, and Conrad Laursen during a collision. Antonelli was back in the top five with five laps to go, while Amand was close to the leader. He attacked at the end of the straight at the beginning of the 17th lap and was in the lead.

Marcus Amand won a superb 0.679″ victory over Dunne. Bedrin narrowly held 3rd place before a penalisation. Ten Brinke snatched 3rd position from De Hann and Antonelli finished 6th. There was a good 7th place for Capietto in front of Lindblad and Zanfari who had a good run in the top 10 ahead of Scionti. Taponen limited the damage by returning to 18th.