23/07/2014

Maranello lays down the law

Once again, in the third round of the Italian CSAI Karting Championship Maranello drivers beat everyone. Marco Zanchetta wins Race 1 and Lorenzo Camplese takes the top spot in Race 2. The two hold a solid lead in the KZ2 title hunt.

Siena Int. Circuit – Castelnuovo Berardenga (SI) – 20 July 2014 The event turn-out, with 148 drivers from 25 nations and 4 continents, confirms once more the great success of the 2014 Italian CSAI Karting Championship. After two rounds Lorenzo Camplese leads the 47 drivers field of the KZ2. Camplese and his teammate Marzo Zanchetta are the men to beat coming into the round and in Siena they reconfirm expectations, as early as the qualifyings. The two run the 2nd and 3rd fastest lap and each conquers the top spot on grid for the start of his set of heats. Here Zanchetta is twice the winner and once 9th, which translates into P3 for the starting grid of Race 1. Camplese is slightly behind – his results are 5th, 6th and 2nd – and lands in P6 on the outside lane. Race 1 turns out to be a thrilling show, thanks to the level of competition that the two Maranello drivers are up against. In Siena rivals are fiercer than ever and ready to battle until the end. However, the pressure does not distract Zanchetta. He does an excellent start and immediately moves up a spot. After a phase of observation, on lap 6 he does his winning move and grabs the lead and never lets go until the checkered. The result is impressive, considering the heat coming from rivals, as proven by the fact that the top three cross the finish-line packed in less than a second. Camplese runs a pondered race, avoiding the battle that ensues behind the pace setters. He makes do with a fifth place finish, giving the impression to be in total control and to be confident of the point advantage he has, as well as of the fact that Race 2 starts with the order inversion for the top 8 finishers of Race 1. In Race 2 Lorenzo Camplese darts off like a missile: he gets in the lead by the end of lap one and becomes simply impossible to catch. The Maranello driver ends with an ample 2 second lead over the pack and consolidates his control on the title hunt with just 2 rounds left. Teammate and Race 1 winner Marco Zanchetta also does fantastic in Race 2. He starts from P8 and immediately leaps behind the leading duo. Midway throughbthe race he comes under serious attack, but defends himself well. At the end he is still 3rd and with a nice advantage over the pack. Zanchetta thus consolidates his runner-up position behind Camplese in the title hunt. The two are 40 points apart.