Competition

OK Final: Mclaughlin beats Matveev

The final race of the Champions of the Future Euro Series weekend in Kristianstad benefited from fine Swedish weather and a temperature of 25°. The OK Final got underway with Fionn Mclaughlin (KR/Iame) taking the lead from Dmitry Matveev (KR/Iame) and Gabriel Gomez (CRG/Iame).
Louis Iglesias (CRG/Iame) went through the grass and was 29th. Thibaut Ramaekers (KR/Iame) and Zac Drummond (Parolin/TM) were back in 3rd and 4th ahead of Gomez and Joe Turney (KR/Iame). Jimmy Hélias (KR/Iame) was 10th. Ramaekers quickly came back to 2nd, 1.1’ behind his team-mate Mclaughlin. Turney was back in 4th place, overtaking Drummond. Andy Consani (Sodi/TM) was up to 15th. Gomez took P5 on lap 7 and Drummond dropped back to 10th. Ramaekers was the fastest and gradually closed in on the leader, with Matveev 3rd, a second behind. At the halfway point, Mclaughlin was only 5 tenths clear of Ramaekers. However, the Belgian’s progress then slowed, particularly in the second sector. With three laps to go, the gap had shrunk to 4 tenths. The battle was on. Ramaekers then came back to within 2 tenths in places. But Ramaekers encountered a mechanical problem and retired on the final lap. Mclaughlin took the win 0.586’ ahead of Matveev. Turney finished 3rd at 1.3‘’, with Gomez 4th 5.6‘’ further back. Jindrich Pesl (CRG/TM) was 5th. In 7th, Davide Bottaro (CRG/Iame) had moved up 15 places. Hélias finished 11th and Consani 12th ahead of Miguel Costa (Parolin/TM).