OK-Junior Final: Ramaekers wins, Bondarev confirms title

The heat was beginning to make itself felt, with temperatures of 30°C under fairly clear skies for the Final of the OK-Junior European Championship. The front row of the grid featured Thibaut Ramaekers (KR/Iame) and Iacopo Martinese (KR/Iame) ahead of Dries van Langendonck (Exprit/TM) and Oleksandr Bondarev (KR/Iame).

Ramaekers took off perfectly at lights out. Martinese remained 2nd ahead of van Langendonck and Christian Costoya (Parolin/TM). Bondarev was 5th on the first lap and came back to 4th as the leading duo escaped. Arjen Kräling (KR/Iame) had moved up five places to 6th. Martinese moved into the lead on lap 5. Bondarev moved up to 3rd, passing van Langendonck, 1.3″ behind Ramaekers. Zac Drummond (Parolin/TM) made a good start to the race in 7th position (+10 places), followed by Andy Consani (Parolin/TM). Lewis Wherrell (Exprit/TM) had retired. Martinese and Ramaekers, separated by around 2 tenths of a second, were running more or less the same times, while Bondarev began to show himself to be faster from the 13th of the 21 laps, 1.3″ behind. Stepan Antonov (KR/Iame) was not far behind Costoya, 1″ ahead of Alfie Slater (LN/TM). Scott Kin Lindblom (Tony Kart/Vortex) had moved up 12 places to 9th behind Consani. Ramaekers regained the lead with three laps to go, while van Langendonck closed on Bondarev. Ramaekers showed himself to be very fast at the end of the race and took victory 8 tenths ahead of Martinese. With his 3rd place, Bondarev took the title. Van Langendonck finished 4th at 0.77” while Antonov was 5th at over 4”. Costoya was 29th.

Info Kartcom with Kartlink / Photo © KSP