Gabriel Gomez dominated the scene in the 1st Round of the FIA European Championship OK which took place on the Valencia track in Spain. The Brazilian took Pole in Qualifying Practice, won 4 Heats out of 5, finished the Super Heat in P1 and dominated the Final, leading the race from the 1st to the last lap. This is an important success for CRG, which opens the season demonstrating the same competitiveness as last year, despite the tires having changed in the FIA events from MG to Maxxis. In Spain, however, not only Gabriel Gomez’s star shone, in fact an exceptional Louis Iglesias took 2nd place, completing a beautiful CRG 1-2 in the direct drive top class. The solid performances of the CRG-Iame duo were also confirmed by Davide Bottaro and Markas Silkunas, P9 and P10 respectively in the Final, after always being among the fastest on the track for the entire weekend. Ups and downs, however, for Guillaume Bouzar who finished the Final in P19, playing a race that improved from a performance point of view, while some race contacts compromised the race of Mark Dubnitksi who finished in P25.
After the 1st of the 4 events scheduled for the FIA Euro in the OK category, Gabriel Gomez leads the Championship standings with a full score with 100 points, while Louis Iglesias is in P4 with 63 points and Davide Bottaro in P10 with 25.
In the OK Junior category the CRG drivers were involved in too many contacts in the Heats and although some of them showed excellent performances, only Oliver Rasmussen qualified for the Final, doing an excellent race which ended in P14.
Next round of the European Championship will take place in France on the Val D’Argenton track on April 28th.
CRG drivers’ post-race reactions:
Gabriel Gomez (OK): “It was a perfect weekend and I want to thank the team for the work done since Free Practice, as well as our engineer Nicola Boscaini from BM Motors. The new Maxxis tires were the most important question mark at the start of the season, but we had yet another confirmation that the balance of our 30mm KT2 chassis is perfect and versatile for any type of tire. This weekend was very important for the Championship also due to Louis’ 2nd place and the fact that our main competitors did not collect many points. Now we have to continue working with this concentration and tackle one race at a time, but we certainly couldn’t hope for a better start to the Championship”.
Louis Iglesias (OK): “In the Heat I made some small mistakes, but in the Final the chassis-engine package was at the top and I also think I had a good race, finishing on the podium in the best possible way this weekend. The team did an excellent job and now I can’t wait to get on the track in France in my home race to confirm these performances”.
Oliver Rasmussen (OK-Junior): “The weekend started with a Qualifying that wasn’t perfect, not up to our potential and what we had shown in Free Practice, but then in the Heat I always had an excellent race pace, even if some small mistakes didn’t allow me to start in the front rows in the Final. However, I finished the race in P14 with a good pace and recovering 15 positions; so all in all we’re pretty happy with the weekend. We leave Valencia with some points in the Championship, but above all with the awareness that the technical potential is very high”.
