CIK-FIA EUROPEAN CHAMPIONSHIP FA (ROUND 3) – ICA (FINAL)

100 ICA – THE REPORT

RISITANO AND CHUKANOV MISSED THEIR OPPORTUNITIES

The qualifiers brought out the name of Sergey Chukanov, a driver of the Birel Ukraine Autopilot organization, assisted for this occasion by Birel Motorsport. The Ukrainian driver attained the pole with a time of 47”499 in the first session, which gave him the advantage of not having to run the 2nd round. Totally different situation for Nicholas Risitano: after having stood out during all the rounds of the free practice, he was followed by at least 5 other drivers trying to get into his slipstream right after the start. But the traffic jam of the last few minutes and the time wasted to get rid of the rivals didn’t enable him to do better than the 5th time in the 1st session. Risitano decided to try the 2nd round without putting on the second set of tyres, however, the less performing track gave him no chance of doing better and pushed him back to the eleventh final placing. Chukanov was followed by Alguersauri, Todisco, Abbasse, Berthon, Calado and Parente. Among the most outstanding Birel drivers, Italian Perfetto (15th), Englishman Croxford (16th), and German Schwabe (17th). In the qualifiers, Nicholas Risitano started off on the right foot, winning the first heat ahead of Todisco and Parente. In the other two heats, the Latium-born driver gained a 3rd and a 4th place, thus earning the overall 3rd placing. The only ones outdoing Risitano were Calado (a victory and 2 second placings) and Berthon (a victory, a second and a third placing). Chukanov was doing very well, too, as he was 2nd in the first heat and arrived first in the second. However, the Ukrainian driver could not avoid contact in the last heat, while he was running in the 2nd position: his kart overturned suffering serious damage to the rear axle. The penalties received owing to his withdrawal dropped him from the 2nd to the 14th place on the starting grid in the Pre-Final. Good performances among Birel drivers also for Croxford, who earned an overall 8th position, as well as Schwabe and Cruttenden, 10th and 11th, respectively. The overall number of Birel drivers admitted to the Final after the qualifiers was positive, too: as many as 10 out of 28 (almost 40%). And after the repechage, Swede Forsman was among the finalists, too. The Pre-Final was won by Calado, but the final results list was conditioned and distorted by the accident in the penultimate lap: Berthon, who was second, lost water from his radiators and Risitano, following right behind him, skidded off track along with 4 other drivers, among them Croxford of the Birel team, who was fifth. Frenchman Corquin was also injured during this accident, which in fact eliminated all the main antagonists of Englishman Calado. Actually, despite his finishing the race second, Berthon, too, was virtually knocked out, since he was found underweight and therefore excluded from the results. The teams engaged in a heated discussion with the Race Management, that, as many said, should have immediately stopped the race and validated the results of the previous lap. It took more than 2 hours after the end of the race to rule the results official, also owing to the appeal of the Sodi Kart team for the disqualification of Berthon. Thus, the pole for the Final went to James Calado, who had Berthon next to him even if pending a decision. Bressan and the excellent Cruttenden (Birel –Andy Cox Racing) started from the second row, followed by Piccioni, Vergne and the three Birel drivers Curridor, Chukanov and Schwabe. Risitano ranked 25th, thus basically having to give up any hope of winning the title. At the start, the two potential leaders were immediately clear: Alguersauri and Parente. Calado took the lead followed by Berthon, while Risitano was 26th at the end of the 1st lap. Chukanov succeeded very soon in standing out among the leaders of the race, whereas Cruttenden made a few mistakes due to his lack of experience: he ran off track a couple of times, thus losing a lot of ground. Leader Calado seemed free to run his race undisturbed, while Risitano and Croxford were gaining round within the centre group at a frenzy pace along with Frenchman Couquin. Soon, Chukanov managed to take up the 4th position, but he was overtaken by Bressan towards the end and finished the race 5th. The Birel driver left the course disappointed by the accident during the heats, which cost him a start from the first row in the Pre-final that would have given him some chances to fight for the victory. During the last laps, Berthon managed to jeopardise even Calado’s certain victory catching up all the lead of the Englishman and overtaking him a few laps from the finishing line. Thus, the driver of the Team Sodi won the race ahead of Calado and Vergne, even if we’ll have to wait for the decision of the Court of Appeal to make the result official. Bressan ended forth ahead of excellent Chukanov and Wittmann. The 7th and 8th placings went to Birel drivers Schwabe and Curridor ahead of Corquin and Risitano. Among the Birel drivers, Harkema (11th), Coxford (12th) and Forsman (14th) performed very well, too.

» 100 FORMULA A – THE REPORT