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Pip Casabene was the best of the Australians at the Champions of the Future Academy Race Day one at Cremona in Italy, scoring a second placed finish in a brutal final in the Senior category.
The Melbourne racer set the pole position in qualifying, however during the two heats was boxed around and shuffled back several places.
He’d been able to save tyres for the final though and quickly got into third position, then late in the race made a decisive move to get to the second step.
The final was won by Mercedes Junior and F1 Academy Scholarship winner, Spaniard – Luna Flux – who dominated the heats and won the final by 6.4 seconds. She was lucky to escape sanction after a startline collision where she fed a wheel to fellow front row starter, Markas Silkunas, who was violently flung from the kart after hitting the fence.
The next best of the Aussies was Romeo Nasr in 12th with Charlotte Page 17th, Loclan Hennock 19th and Isaac Demellweek 23rd. The results of that quadrant doesn’t reflect their pace – all received five second penalties due to front fairing infringements, Hennock an additional five seconds for a driving infringement. Hennock had dropped to last and was knocking on the door of the top 10; while Page had fought valiantly during the heats- making more places in both than any other driver.
Casabene heads to Sunday’s Race Day two second in the points chase.
James Anagnostiadis narrowly missed the podium in the Junior category after a torrid day. He suffered a deflating front left tyre in the opening heat, however still salvaged a fourth placed finish after a spirited almost race long battle with Ella Hakkinen. The daughter of the double F1 Champion was quick from the get-go however got shuffled down the order in the final.
Anagnostiadis enters Sunday’s race meeting third on points. Santana and Sujana Dandu (entered under the Australian flag, but racing under their native, Singapore) finished 24th and 26th respectively.
Pole, Kacper Rajpold took maximum points from the heat races and his final win.
The Australian drivers in the Mini 60 category kept the Stewards busy post race, all receiving sanctions of varying degrees.
Oscar Singh was 19th after receiving a five second post race penalty for ‘overtaking after the red line’. He was the only Australian credited with a finish. His brother Koda was disqualified for a ‘bad’ driving infringement; Oskar Hennock doubled up – firstly getting a five second penalty for being in an incorrect starting position and then disqualified for ‘pushing beyond the white line’.
The race went back one lap after finishing under red due to a wild double rollover in the battle for the minor positions. When the results were posted, Swiss, Albert Tamm won by 0.058 over Alessandro Truchot with Lucas Palacio seeing two Italian flags on the podium.
The race meeting re-sets for race day two on Sunday. Competitors will have their engines re-balloted before practice and qualifying. Livestream coverage will start at approximately 9:15pm AEDT.
AUSSIE WATCH:
MINI 60
19th 815 Oscar Singh
DQ 816 Koda Singh
DQ 833 Oskar Hennock
JUNIOR
4th 36 James Anagnostiadis
24th 37 Sanjana Dandu
26th 31 Sujana Dandu
SENIOR
2nd 233 Pip Casabene
12th 229 Romeo Nasr
17th 218 Charlotte Page
19th 240 Loclan Hennock
23rd 227 Isaac Demellweek
SENIOR FINAL HIGHLIGHTS
JUNIOR FINAL HIGHLIGHTS
MINI FINAL HIGHLIGHTS
