UPDATED: First blood to Harvey at Monaco Cup but Rowland takes pole

The KF3 Juniors have just finished their two series of non-qualifying practice. The British made their presence felt with Oliver Rowland (Topkart/Comer) dominating the first series, then European Champion Jack Harvey (Maranello/XTR) went faster in the second series with 49.726 ahead of Jordan Lennox-Lamb (Topkart/Comer). All others were over 50 seconds a lap. The German driver Florian Faas (Zanardi/XTR) was 4th, followed by another British driver, Jiri Forman (Topkart/Comer), then Portugal’s David Rambeau (Zanardi/XTR) was in 6th.

The top French driver was Brandon Maisano (Intrepid/XTR) in 10th but there were disappointing performances from Nicolaj Moller Madsen (Tonykart/XTR) and Alex Fontana (PCR/Windfire) but the event doesn’t start seriously until 13:25 with the beginning of timed qualifying.

Oliver Rowland decisively took pole position with a superb time of 49.579 in his second session, and Viking Trophy winner Nikolaj Moller Madsen came back to form with the second best time. Jack Harvey was third but was not concerned about tomorrow’s heats, and was followed
by Timmy Hansen (Tonykart/Vortex) in an excellent 4th place, then Marc Otero and Brandon Maisano.

With regard to the French drivers, they seemed to be victims of an English domination, which couldn’t be a prediction of this evening’s Rugby World Cup semi-final… Hugo Meunier (Intrepid/XTR) placed himself in the top ten for the first time at this level. Nelson De Carvalho (PCR/Windfire) was 27th on his first race in KF3, just in front of French Champion Jonathan Helias (Intrepid/XTR), also on his debut.

Oliver Rowland will start on pole position for the Prefinal of the Monaco Junior Grand Prix in a few minutes. The Briton was imperious with two heat victories, while Denmark’s Nicolaj Moller Madsen will also take his place on the front row of the starting grid. By winning one of his two heats, Marc Otero starts third in front of Fabio Unverdruss and Alex Fontana, well recovered from his 17th position in practice.

There was a double disappointment for Jack Harvey who encountered a fault with his chassis after yesterday’s repair and has just collected a six-point penalty for switching to another kart. He will start 7th. The first French driver, Brandon Maisano, is down in 11th position.

Jonathan Helias, not very convincing yesterday with a modest 29th in timed practice, got along better with his kart this morning with 16th. On the other hand, Hugo Meunier, the surprise of the weekend, twisted a track rod and had to retire leaving him on the 16th row, the places in front of Nelson De Carvalho. The Portuguese Zanardi clan were 29th with Joao Pinto and 31st with David Rambeau, both of whom had hard races.

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