Dante and Iancu among the best at the Italian Championship in Lonato
Massimo Dante came fourth in the first final in Lonato after shining in qualifying. The young Alex Iancu ended fifth in Mini after leading the first laps of the first final. Pastacaldi involved in an incident in qualifying.
The fourth round of the Italian Championship took place at South Garda Karting in Lonato and Maranello Kart made it to the track with its drivers in KZ2, 60 Mini and Rok Junior. It has not been an easy weekend, it has rather been quite difficult in fact, despite the competitiveness level shown by Maranello Kart’s drivers being very high.
An incident on Saturday afternoon in one KZ2 heat unfortunately involved Marco Pastacaldi while the Italian was trying to recover some places after qualifying. Pastacaldi rolled over in the heat of the first lap and fractured 6 ribs. Promptly aided, he was transferred to the Hospital of Desenzano, where he has been checked and no other injuries were found. He will obviously be forced to a long stop though. Maranello Kart sends its best wishes for a prompt recovery to Pastacaldi.
Maranello Kart’s KZ2 baton went to the other drivers then. Massimo Dante had a good qualifying and ended Series1 in third place, while he claimed one win and a second place in the heats, but an hiccup in one heat forced him to recover some lost ground in the first final, where he pulled a great P4 nevertheless. Dante had then to retire from Race-2 due to an early contact, and therefore had to give up on improving his position.
The other Maranello Kart’s driver were also quite unlucky, mainly due to some racing contacts: Andrea Ceresoli ended Race-1 in 22nd place, while Christoph Hold was 26th. Both drivers also had to retire early on from Race-2 due to an incident. Luigi Del Vecchio did not manage to qualify for the Final due to a contact in the second chance race.
Category 60 Mini had 80 drivers at the start. Among these, Alex Iancu came to the fore. The young driver of Maranello Kart has been among the quickest since qualifying, where he claimed overall P2 being only 0.041s shy of the pole position. Iancu kept then his momentum in the heat ending third, losing then P3 for a whisker in the first Final after leading the race early on. Iancu closed his effort in P5, while he was 12th in Race-2. The Romanian driver Luca Paul Viisoreanu also contested 60 Mini in Lonato with Maranello Kart, but he could not qualify for the Final.
Mattia Simonini competed in Rok Junior for Maranello, but he suffered some racing contacts that spoiled the end result of his two finals. He ended Race-1 in 27th place, while he had to retire early from Race-2.
Maranello Kart will get back on track for the European KZ Championship in Lonato with Christoph Hold.
The complete results of the Italian Championship in Lonato are available at www.acisport.it/it/CIK/home.