Over in KZ2, after a shaky start to his day polesitter Lehouck recovered during the afternoon to secure three heat wins but this ultimately wasn't enough to stop a storming Teo Blin who nabbed the classification lead during the final heat. Schleimer was on track to challenge for a grid advantage but suffered a final heat disaster which took him from leading the race to the back of the grid.

Finally in Academy Junior, John Han from Hong Kong put on a standout performance across the day. After placing in tenth position in qualifying practice yesterday he took a heat win and second place to lead the standings heading into the final set of heats tomorrow morning.

KZ

Gustafsson made his move early in the first of three heats today, bolting off the grid to take the early lead at the expense of Albanese and Spirgel. Chaos then began to ensue as a series of incidents saw spins, collisions and retirements across the field in the biggest track drama of the day.

World Champion Van Walstijn was involved in one of the heat one incidents pushing him down the order to 18th. Although the Dutch driver managed to skilfully recover places to cross the line seventh, he ultimately faced disqualification for an unsafe manoeuvre; not the start to the European Championship that he would have wished for.

Pex and Palomba were also caught up in one of the costly heat one incidents, as was Nomblot, Vasile and Camplese. Travisanutto avoided the drama to gain valuable positions as did Bertuca until a final lap misstep from the Italian. David Liwinski was the big gainer of the session, climbing ten spots.

A calmer second heat began with polesitter Albanese initially starting well as Pex quickly tuned up the heat on Gustafsson and took second position by lap three. Van Walstijn, Vasile and Spirgel lost out in the early stages with Vasile and Van Walstijn retiring in a disastrous day for the Dutch driver. Palamba was involved in another collision, this time with Spirgel, to leave his race weekend in jeopardy headed into the third heat.

By lap four Pex had found his speed around the Belgian track and made a clean move on Albanese to take the race lead with Gustafsson hot on their tails and into second spot by the midpoint of the race. Pex went on to take the chequered flag but with Gustafsson maintaining his classification lead headed into the final heat.

As the day drew to a close, Gustafsson was looking to solidify his position and into turn one he performed a fine manoeuvre from the second row of the grid to take the heat lead. Albanese, who was defending his second position in the standings, demonstrated the elite racing skill of the premier karting category as he overtook Spirgel with a world-class move.

Pex continued his strong form into the evening putting him well into contention this weekend as he closed in on Albanese as the heat entered its final moments. Albanese was eventually overtaken by Pex before the polesitter immediately came under pressure Palomba, a track battle that continued until the final lap which Palomba won, pushing Albanese down into fourth.

Matteo Spirgel crossed the line in fifth position ending a challenging day for the defending champion following a disqualification and 5-second penalty. He ends the day on 81 points and in ninth position in the intermediate classification after he qualified in second position yesterday.

KZ provisional standings after qualifying heats

1. Viktor Gustafsson (SWE, CRG)144 points
2. Danilo Albanese (ITA, KR)123 points
3. Stan Pex (NED, SP) 116 points
4. Adrian Malheiro Suñe (ESP, CRG) 99 points
5. Pedro Hiltbrand (ESP, Birel) 98 points

View KZ Intermediate Classification

KZ2

KZ2 track running today started with a setback for Michael Ider who started his first heat in pole position only to struggle off the line and immediately drop ten places, handing a heat lead to Goldstein which he protected until the chequered flag. Civico Espona and Tani were the other big gainers early in the day with James Anagnostiadis hit by a mechanical failure.

Goldstein had less luck in his second heat to finish fourth losing two spots and lost a further place in his third heat but hovered around the top positions in the classification all day to end on 214 points and in 3rd position.

In the second heat of the day Teo Blin, who raced off the line from his front row start, was hit with a 5 second time penalty for starting outside of his grid box pushing him down to second place and dampening his otherwise perfect start to the qualifying heats. Blin recovered through the day, winning both his second and third heats as the French driver seemed unstoppable in the heat of Belgium as a battle in the standings between his compatriot and yesterday's polesitter Lehocuk began to develop over the afternoon.

Lehouck started his day with another setback after losing three places in his first heat yesterday evening. Starting alongside Schleimer this morning, the French driver initially lost out to the German off the line and then had to defend against Broggio behind who ultimately overtook the polesitter in the midpoint of the heat handing Schleimer an early lead in the classification.

Schleimer repeated this performance throughout the day, looking more than comfortable around the Genk track, overtaking Ider in his second heat and Blin in his third heat which he held until the penultimate lap when Blin crucially retook the lead in both the heat and the intermediate classification.

In his final heat, Schleimer initially started well and took the lead, but his heat turned quickly into disaster soon after being hit by a move from both Enzo Bol and Alois Giradet. Schleimer was then caught up in mid-pack and unable to stop the steep slide down the order which he faced until the very end of the heat. Schleimer eventually crossed the line in 21st position and ends Saturday on 210 points and in fourth position.

Lehouck recovered during his afternoon sessions to lead his second heat of the day from lights to the line. Lehouck repeated this cruise to the line during his third and final heats of the day to end on 229 points which was enough to top the classification until Blin won his final heat to go clear at the top of the standings to end a brilliant day of running for the French drivers.

Elsewhere, Kimi Tani put on one of the performances of the day this afternoon with a five-place leap into a heat win as was Noah Wolfe's final heat performance of the day which saw him hunting down the leaders and crossing the line in third.

Standings in the KZ2 category after qualifying heats:

1. Teo Blin (FRA, Birel Art) 244 points
2. Arthur Lehouck (FRA, KR) 229 points
3. Elie Goldstein (BEL, TBKart) 214 points
4. Maximilian Schleimer (GER, Tony Kart) 210 points
5. Antoine Broggio (FRA, Birel Art) 206 points

View KZ2 Intermediate Classification

Academy Junior

Polesitter Zoltan Coigny defended his lead well during his first heat, crossing the line vaover 2 seconds clear of Kevin Pentell from Sweden. A first lap pile-up briefly brought out the slow boards as seven karts littered the track following an incident including Marco Sammut, Maj Rakuša and Galeano Grinó. Japanese driver Takeru Shimbashi was quick out of the blocks however and able to speed past the incident, quickly gaining places.

Bwana Gessesse from Kenya and William Nielsen from Denmark also performed well this morning, a surge of seven places for the Dane. When groups B and C went head-to-head immediately afterwards, John Han climbed three spots to second place before making the move on leader Aleksander Praizovic who tumbled down the order. Noah Grignet was however the big winner from this morning's heats, climbing seven spots to take a heat win.

Shimbashi continued his strong form into the afternoon, sweeping into the lead as Coigny lost out and was forced to defend against John Han behind. A yo-yo of race leaders momentarily saw Coigny retake his position before the heat was neutralised under a slow procedure. On the restart, Coigny was caught out, dropping to fourth spot as Han raced to the lead which he held until the end of the race to overtake Coigny and to the top of the standings.

Shimbashi, Coco and Deresnes also capitalised during the closing stages to occupy the top positions with Coigny eventually crossing the line in fifth position leaving him in third place in the classification.

The final heat of the day was a calmer affair as Psaroudakis held onto his heat lead throughout with Grignet steadily climbing places behind, demonstrating great consistency to end the day tied on points with Han in the classification. Piñera Rusiñol made up significant ground from his qualifying practice performance yesterday where he placed in 36th, gaining 10 places in his first heat and 9 places in his second.

Academy Junior Intermediate Classification

1. John Han (HKG) 94 points
2. Noah Grignet (BEL) 94 points
3. Zoltan Coigny (SUI) 86 points
4. Takeru Shimbashi (JAP) 85 points
5. Georgios Psaroudakis (GRE) 82 points

View Academy Junior Results

Action continues tomorrow morning from the Karting Genk circuit with the final Academy Junior qualifying heats from 09:55. All the racing will be LIVE and FREE on the FIA Karting YouTube channel from 09:50 CET.

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