Max Verstappen wins KZ1 title WSK Euro Series at Genk!

Published on 04 June 2013 by Niels Hendrix

CRG showed on track an absolute dominion in Genk's last round of the WSK Euro Series in KZ1, which culminated in final 1 victory – worth also the well deserved title for Max Verstappen – and in the solid one-two-three obtained in the second final on Sunday with Davide Fore satisfactorily back on the top spot of the podium together with Jonathan Thonon and with the great protagonist Max Verstappen.

CRG drivers dominated the Belgian weekend highlighting once again the quality and competitiveness of the chassis produced by the Italian outfit, awarding the whole team with increased motivation for the remaining of the season that is about to get in the "red-hot" phase of the CIK-FIA championships.

After the spotless victory obtained by Max Verstappen (CRG/TM) in Genk's first KZ1 final on Saturday, which crowned him WSK Euro Series 2013 Champion, on Sunday honors were all for Davide Fore, who was racing with CRG colors for the Polish team DTK. The Italian driver on CRG/TM prepared by Del Dosso, started from the front row and cruised to the victory since the beginning as his lead was never questioned after the initial laps of a race, that saw again Davide Fore under the spotlight and more competitive than ever.
CRG's dominion was completed by Jonathan Thonon, on CRG/Maxter prepared by Tec-Sav, who obtained a very good second place while also setting the fastest lap of the race on a circuit where he was crowned world champion for the fourth time in 2011. The Belgian driver managed to get the third place of the final standings, a result awarding his competitiveness and strong determination.

Max Verstappen deserves a special reference as he won the championship thanks to Saturday's final win, but then suffered an engine failure in the first heat on Sunday and therefore was forced to recover ground to the rivals in the second racing day. The exceptional shape of the young Dutch driver was confirmed in Sunday's final, when he started from the 14th (!) place of the grid and later on recovered all the positions and joined the two colors-companions on top of the race. Unfortunately in one race phase Verstappen was bumped by a rival that partially bent his rear bump. Quite incredibly he tried to fix the problem while still in the race and managed to get rid of the piece of plastic touching is rear wheel.

Race direction waved the technical flag at Verstappen to call him back to the pits, but withdrew it a lap later as the situation seem to be back to normal. After the truly deserved podium, following some complaints filed by the fourth classified (what one wouldn't do for a trophy...), Verstappen has been excluded by the classification, as his rear bumper at the end of the race did not comply with the original dimensions. Classification wise this was not a problem though, as the championship was already secured and Verstappen certainly put in an historic race no matter what.

Euan Jeffery, team manager CRG: "For the second year in a row we managed to bring home the KZ1 title in WSK Euro Series. This has not been a walk in the park as track conditions were not easy to handle with such changing weather and gave us some problems. The tarmac was quite slippery but at the end of the day we had an excellent result with three CRG drivers on the podium. All our drivers were very quick, which makes us hopeful for the second round of the European Championship that will take place on this very same track in Genk at the end of June."

Max Verstappen: "The season has been really great so far. In the beginning of this week it has been a little bit difficult to find a good balance, but after qualifying we found a good setup and on Saturday I managed to win the final and title achieving the target we set ourselves, which made me really happy. In Sunday's final I had a good start but then I was waved the technical flag, therefore I looked around and I saw that my rear bump was hitting the left rear tire. I tried for four laps to get it out and then it suddenly was out. At that point I kept pushing and pushing. I came back from fourteen to third: that's been great. Finally we got a disqualification as a rival filed a complaint on the final dimensions of my rear bump. This does not take anything away from my race and most of all does not affect the victory of the championship in any way".

Final classifications; WSK Euro Series, KZ1: 1. Verstappen 215; 2. Hanley 137; 3. Thonon 99; 4. De Conto 85; 5. Pex 83; 6. Lammers 70; 7. Ardigò 69; 8. Hajek 64; 9. Forè 61; 10. Lennox 48

Niels Hendrix