CRG, strong start at the DKM opener in Lonato

CRG has been a great protagonist in the opener of the German Championship DKM in Lonato. The race had 180 drivers on track at South Garda Karting, which set a new participation record for the German series valid for the four categories OK-Junior, OK, KZ2 and KZ2 Cup.

The first round of DKM could have been even better classification-wise for CRG colors, but Race-1 victory of Enzo Trulli in OK-Junior, that of Pedro Hiltbrand in KZ2 and the full haul of Emilien Denner in KZ2 Cup, confirmed the great start of the Italian outfit. Race-2 has meaner with satisfaction for CRG drivers, due also to some unlucky episode, as in the case of the second final of KZ2 that was made trickier by some rain drops that did not allow Hiltbrand to convert his early lead into a win.

TRULLI BACK TO THE VICTORY IN JUNIOR. OK-Junior of DKM has brought Enzo Trulli back to the fore, as he has taken his second win this year, after the recent victory at the Andrea Margutti Trophy. The son of former F1 driver won Race-1, while Alfio Spina has also been shining ending seventh, Leonardo Bertini Colla (at his comeback to CRG) was 12th and the Chinese driver Xizhang Huang followed him in P13. Spina confirmed his place among the quickest also in Race-2 ending third on the podium, as did Bertini Colla, who claimed a good fifth place. Huang secured a great P6, while Trulli was pushed down from P4 to the ninth place by a penalty. Race-2 was won by Kal Askey.

PEDRO WINNING THE KZ2 OPENING RACE. CRG colors have been rewarded by Pedro Hiltbrand's victory in KZ2. He ruled Race-1, together with SRP Racing Team's Fabian Federer, who took the pole position leading Hiltbrand and ended the first Final in third place. The six time winner of DKM Jorrit Pex closed his race in fourth place. Federer has been forced to an early retirement from Race-2, and handed the lead of the race to Hiltbrand. Some rain drops stopped the race to allow drivers to swap tyres. Such a swap did not happen in practice though, as virtually all drivers decided to continue on slick tyres hoping for a dry track. Daniel Stell took the gamble of rain tyres and managed to get past all his rivals, winning the race under a light rain. Stan Pex had managed to climb on top of the pack, but eventually had to give way to Stell, who has been helped in the closing stages by another rain shower. Stan Pex ended on the podium taking a great P2, while Jorrit Pex was third. Hiltbrand closed his race in P13 instead. Jean Luyet has also been among the quickest in P10, as did Max Tubben in 11th. Alessandro Giardelli has been very quick in qualifying and posted the fourth absolute best time and then ended Race-1 in eighth place and Race-2 in 17th.

DENNER DOMINATING KZ2 CUP. Emilien Denner dominated KZ2 Cup on Kalì-Kart. He has been the absolute quickest in qualifying and then claimed a double win in Race-1 and Race-2. SRP Racing Team's Thomas Neumann has been the best on CRG chassis, as he was sixth in Race-1 and fifth in Race-2. Giorgio Amati closed also on the top ten on CRG: he was eighth in Race-1 and seventh in Race-2.

HAVERKORT AND ROSSO ON THE OK PODIUM IN RACE-1. Following a good qualifying session, Kas Haverkort (champion last year in Junior on CRG and this year in OK on Zanardi chassis), fourth in OK, and Andrea Rosso seventh, Haverkort closed Race-1 in fourth place, while Rosso got on the five-place podium of DKM in fifth position. Haverkort had to settle for P7 in Race-2 and Rosso was 17th. Both finals were won by Junior Vice European Champion Harry Thompson.

The next rounds of DKM are scheduled for next May 13th in Wackersdorf (D), June 3rd in Ampfing (D), July 29th in Kerpen (D) and August 26th in Genk (B). Complete results are available at www.kart-dm.de/en/home/.