Bailly fourth in his first European Championship

Sébastien Bailly turned in a brilliant performance in the European KF3 final. After qualifying in 28th position, Kosmic’s Junior driver pulled out all the stops to take fourth place. The newly-crowned French champion proved emphatically that he is one of the most promising talents in the international arena.

Sébastien is going to remember this first outing of his in the final stages of a European competition for a very long time. Finishing in the top 4 in a category with no less than 174 entrants is a huge achievement. The race was so fast and furious, and the gap between the drivers so minimal, that Sébastien had to use all his guile and fighting qualities to claim such a result. “Don’t forget all the work put in by my Kosmic team! They put a fantastic kart at my disposal so that I could make the most of my chances. And my engineer Olivier Maréchal’s Vortex engines were top rate”, said Sébastien.

But that’s not to say the weekend was plain sailing, far from it in fact. “I was a bit disappointed to have only clocked the 34th fastest time. But still, there were 69 of us all within a second of each other. If I had slipstreamed better in the main straight I might have been one or two tenths of a second faster, which would have seen me 10 or 20 places further up the field !” So he was hoping to take advantage of the heats to climb up the table. “It’s always a bit dodgy to start in the middle of the pack, there’s always a lot of pushing and shoving” In the end he found himself in 28th place on the starting grid for the pre-final. For their part, the Kosmic team came up with some excellent technical solutions well-suited to the long hard circuit in Sarno, not far from Naples.

With maximum concentration, Bailly raced superbly in the prefinal, getting the most out of a Kosmic/Vortex that was going like a dream. From 28th place he managed to climb up to 10th. “I got off to a great start and did a lot of overtaking. It was a thrilling race!” said Sébastien enthusiastically. Fired up by this top ten standing, he carried on where he left off in the final. “It’s as if the whole season depends on one race”, continued Sébastien. “It means you have a max of pressure. But I tried not to think about it and just tried to do the best I could”.

As the European campaign has demonstrated, Sébastien is a lot more self-assured these days, no doubt because of his numerous outings in the stiff Italian Open masters competition and, of course his victories in the French championships. It shows in the way he has ramped up his performance levels recently. After an admirable performance throughout the 25-kilometer race, the Belgian driver crossed the finishing line in 4th place. “Before this final race the team made a few more modifications to the machine and the setup was perfect. I even managed to lap faster than the two karts ahead of me but they had too much of a head start for me to catch them. That said, I’m pleased with the result. Coming fourth in my first European Junior championships is just great !”

The 15-year-old from Liège’s superb season in KF3 means he will be able to move up to KF2 within the next few weeks, in time to prepare for the 2008 season.

Leave a Reply