On Thursday, June 11, drivers in the International OK and OK Junior categories will hit the track for the opening free practice sessions of Round 3 of the FIA European Championship. The Mülsen circuit in Germany will stage the third of four scheduled events, in a traditional back-to-back format following last weekend’s Champions of the Future round held at the same venue.
For the CRG Racing Team, this is a key meeting where the squad will aim to capitalise on the data gathered over the past week, particularly in terms of chassis setup and engine performance, continuing the strong development trajectory shown since the start of the season in the direct-drive categories.
The event will follow the standard FIA Karting weekend format: qualifying and the opening heats on Friday, a full day of eliminatory heats on Saturday, and Super Heats plus Finals on Sunday.
The Mülsen circuit proved to be highly demanding for drivers, with last week featuring intense battles and numerous on-track contacts. For this week’s event, weather conditions could also become a major factor, further complicating strategy for teams and drivers alike and making any predictions extremely difficult. Despite a less-than-ideal weekend at the Champions of the Future, CRG remains confident in both its technical package and driver line-up, maintaining a cautiously optimistic outlook.
The official CRG squad will field five drivers: Viktor Gustafsson, Asher Ochstein, and Nefeli Kosmopoulos in OK, alongside Iason Kosmopoulos and Samuel Hugon in OKJ. In addition to the CRG colours, drivers competing under the Lenovo Kalì Kart banner will also be in action, with Davide Bottaro entered in OK, and Julian Rivera plus Mark Loomets competing in OKJ.
CRG Team Principal Jeremy Iglesias previewed the upcoming round:
“We know we have a competitive technical package, as also demonstrated by the strong results achieved under the Kalì Kart brand last week. The goal is to capitalise on the work done and make no mistakes in qualifying. On this track, starting further back is far more penalising than on other circuits, so we need to optimise everything around the three to four flying laps the drivers will have on new tyres in qualifying. The weather forecast is also unstable, so we must stay fully alert to the evolving track conditions and rely a little on luck as well, which unfortunately wasn’t really on our side last week.”
Live coverage of the event will be available via the official FIA Karting platform www.fiakarting.com
