LONATO (Brescia – Italy), 21st February 2010. Great performances at 2010 season start for CRG Official Team. The new Maxter engines showed great competitiveness and reliability in the first official event of the season: the Winter Cup at Lonato. Before the official events of the WSK, the Company of Desenzano del Garda has confirmed to play a leading role, beginning from the top category. In fact, in Super KF the quick Arnaud ‘Koko’ Kozlinski, reigning world champion, performed at top level with big chances for the final victory. Also David Foré, already winner of several titles, got excellent results: he gained the pole position and was always right in the middle of the fight for the first places. Koko’s overall performance was spoilt by the consequences of a rough collision against one of the competitors in the final, after his smooth win of the pre-final. The CRG driver, with seven laps to go, had taken the lead for the second time in the final thanks to an enthralling duel with his rivals: then a sudden and unpredictable collision pushed him back to a final fifth place. Anyway, the aggregated results of the pre-final and final allowed him to gain the third step of the podium. Forè finished seventh, but despite this he was very satisfied of his performance, as well as Thonon who, after a gripping fight to get to the first positions, was content with the final tenth place. Young driver Felice Tiene’s performance was excellent too: despite he caught an intestinal virus during the weekend he was strong enough to make his way through from the 23th place, after the heats, up to the 12th place in the final. Eddy Tinini was stopped by technical troubles. The final results of Super KF show how the 2010 season is going to be a tough one on a technical level too: for example, about the recently homologated motorizations, in the first five positions there are four different engines!
In KF3, the young Dutch driver Max Verstappen is the new star of the category. The son of the former F1 driver Jos Verstappen, arrived for second in the final after winning his qualifying heats. It was his debut in this category, but he was immediately one of the protagonists, fighting every inch for the final win and leading the race for many laps. Great satisfactions are expected from this young talent. Benjamin Gerard is another young talent full of expectations. He was rather unlucky on this occasion: he missed the final but was very competitive indeed. Whereas Mario Ziletti from Brescia was at his debut in an international competition and still needs some training.
In KF2, Michelle Gatting of CRG Junior Team got excellent results. The sixteen-year-old Danish driver was very quick since the beginning. She was so quick that she managed to win one of the heats, even though she met some troubles and was eventually obliged to take part in the second chance heat, where she managed to arrive 8th from the 23th place. Giovanni Martinez, always in
KF2, did not manage to qualify, while the Argentinean Franco Ruberto Curia did not take part in this event; he will start his season with the next event: the WSK Euro Series at Muro Leccese on 7th March.
Giancarlo Tinini (C.R.G. S.p.A. Chairman):
‘My comment on this first event of the season is absolutely positive. We did well in all the categories, in KF2 too with Michelle Gatting, who drove really fast! In KF3 max Verstappen was quick from the very beginning: he played a leading role throughout the whole event. And the same can be said for Gerard, who showed his excellent qualities. It’s a pity for “Koko” in Super KF; he was unlucky in the final. He started from the back rows and he didn’t have the chance to recover. Instead, for Thonon this was a preparatory race: a good training session before the beginning of WSK, where he will participate in KZ. Tiene had several physical problems because of that intestinal virus, but despite this he managed to perform well in the final. Eddy too was going well, then troubles with the engine stopped him. It was a good rehearsal to test our potentialities: I’m sure we’ll get a kick out of WSK.’Arnaud Kozlinski:
‘I was purposely hindered during the race by one of my rivals, otherwise I’d have won the final. Technically speaking, we had a great chassis and the engine was absolutely performing. The delay of three hours, which obliged us to race in the cold evening, may have limited the overall performance of my engine. In the prefinal, with a warmer temperature, I won with a terrific race recovering from 8th place.’Davide Foré:
‘During the first race I had some grip problems while braking; my kart wasn’t well balanced. For the final we made some adjustments on the chassis and things started to get better. The engine’s got great potentialities, we will play an important role in the season.’Jonathan Thonon:
‘After marking the third time during the practice, I started really behind in the pre-final, then I did better in the final managing to gain the 10th place. I’m glad, anyway: for me it was a great training session before the KZ season. I must thank Giancarlo Tinini heartedly for giving me this opportunity. From the next race, on 7th March, with the WSK opening event, my season will be essentially focused on the category with gear-shift.’Felice Tiene:
‘I hadn’t feel well for a week, and this morning I had to go to the hospital, because I needed some treatment (they gave me a couple of drip-feeds). I felt better, then; the race went well. I had a problem in one of the heats, which obliged me to start from the back rows, even though eventually I managed to recover and to finish 12th. I’m really glad, after all. It was my first race in Super KF and I was at the same level of the greatest champion of the category.’Press Office
C.R.G. S.p.A.
www.kartcrg.com
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