CRG and Federer on the podium of KZ at the World Championship in Genk
Fabian Federer (SRP Racing Team) claimed the third place at the KZ World Championship in Belgium, while Paolo De Conto had to abdicate after winning the title for two years in a row. CRG close to the podium in KZ2 with Gaetano Gomes Di Mauro, who was fourth.
The CIK-FIA World Championship “Kart Grand Prix Belgium” in Genk did not go very well for CRG Racing team both in the only round of the KZ World Championship and in the KZ2 International Super Cup. CRG drivers were delayed by several reasons in qualifying and the Belgian weekend has been quite steep ever since.
Fabian Federer, on CRG-Tm run by SRP Racing Team, secured a great place taking P3 in front of about 4.000 spectators. The Italian driver could shine in qualifying, where he claimed a great pole position, before ending heats in P6. Federer run a remarkable Final and, despite a problem to the accelerator towards the end of the race, he managed to make up for the lost ground and finished on the podium. Federer completed with a high his International season after coming third also at the KZ European Championship and winning the DKM German Championship. The KZ World Championship went to Patrick Hajek this year. Rick Dreezen followed him at the flag.
Paolo De Conto, 2016 World Champion in Kristianstad and 2017 World Champion in Wackersdorf had to abdicate instead. De Conto started the weekend very poorly, as he retired from qualifying due to a technical problem. In the heats De Conto bounced back up to P14 and has been the absolute quickest in the Final, recovering further ground up to P5 – very close to the podium indeed, as he closed 0.042s from Alex Irlando and just over a tenth off Federer. It would have been difficult to do more. Pedro Hiltbrand was also hit by bad luck in qualifying due to a technical problem. Hiltbrand has been really impressive in the heats where he managed to climb up to P11, but he had to give up again in the Final due to the failure of a hose clamp of the water pipe. The new European Champion Jorrit Pex was sixth for CRG, while Stan Pex was 11th and Andrea Dalè 14th.
A good overall race was run by the Brazilian of CRG Gaetano Gomes Di Mauro in KZ2, as he came third on CRG-Tm and has always been among the quickest, displaying a very quick race pace both in the heats, where he came sixth, and in the Final, where he seemed to have the podium at reach. The Spanish driver Gerard Cebrian Ariza also run a great race recovering from P24 to P11, while Emilien Denner, on Kalì-Kart, had to settle for P12 behind Cebrian after being third in the European Championship. The Dutch Dylan Davies (Zanardi) was 15th, Filippo Berto was quite unlucky as he went off due to an incident and recovered afterwards up to P23. The Dutch Max Tubben of CRG Holland had to retire after closing heats in P5. Jean Luyet, Enrico Prosperi, Marco Valenti, Arto Ojaranta and Fotis Sotiropoulos did not manage to qualify for the Final instead. The CIK-FIA KZ2 title went to Matteo Viganò, who posted the pole position time, won heats and Final.