RMCIT : Kai Hunter on pole in Senior at Le Mans

The weather was fine although a little bit cool for the season (17°) when the Qualifying Practice of the Rotax MAX Challenge International Trophy started this Thursday morning in Le Mans. The 82 Senior drivers were divided into three groups for 8′ sessions. The game was to leave the pre-grid as close as possible to the 5-minute limit.

Kovacs Zsombor (Exprit) went under 53” on his third lap and continued to improve at the front of the first group. With a time of 52”865 on his fifth lap he was the fastest 34 thousandths ahead of Nolan Lemeray (EOS), Eva Mondou (EOS) 3rd by 48 thousandths, Arthur Marcou (Redspeed) 4th by 83 thousandths and Arthur Roché (Kosmic) 5th by 0,112”.

Gaspard Simon (Kosmic) was the first to start with Dylan Léger (Sodi) on their second lap of Session 2. But the session was stopped by a red flag with 2’48” to go. Despite a clear briefing on the subject, some drivers were still grouped together at low speed on the track and interfered with the smooth running of the session, which justified a call to order from the Race Director on the start line. The session was restarted for 2’20”. Kai Hunter (EOS) took the lead in a very compact field in front of Simon and finished with 52’855. Jolan Raccamier (Kosmic) was 2nd by 41 thousandths, Maxence Godinho (Tony Kart) was 4th by 0.174”, and Sam Butcher (Kosmic) 5th in this disturbed session.

The lesson was learned for the third session and the drivers drove at a good pace throughout the session. Luca Leistra (Tony Kart) led ahead of Rhys Hunter (EOS) and Tom Billout (Tony Kart), but the 53″ barrier was not broken. Rhys was fastest with 53’008 on his fifth lap, followed by Zeno Kovacs (Exprit) by 39 thousandths. Leistra finished 3rd by 0.135 followed by Billout and Paul Fourquemin (Sodi).

Info Kartcom / Photo © KSP