Young Emirati kart racer Keanu Al-Azhari overcame his lack of experience to finish a fine 10th overall on his OK Senior debut at the Champions of the Future Winter Series race at Franciacorta Karting Track, Italy, on Sunday.
Al-Azhari has moved up to OK Senior at just 14 and missed the first three WSK races of the season. He was also up against many rivals in their second or third year in the category.
That counted for little once the race started, as he showed his potential against the world’s top karting teams and likely future Formula One stars.
Driving for the Tony Kart Racing Team, Al-Azhari completed 23 laps of the challenging 1,300-metre circuit at an average of 128 km/h and finished just 12.653 seconds behind winner Tomass Stolcermanis of Latvia.
Champions of the Future Winter Series here at Franciacorta is over. I had an amazing weekend in OK Senior with a great result of P10 in the final and a lot of progress made in the duration of the four days.
Keanu Al-Azhari
I learned a lot of valuable skills throughout the weekend, such as management, carburation, optimisation and chassis set-up. It was a great way to start out with my official Tony Kart Racing Team. Now we look forward to progressing more throughout the year.
Keanu Al-Azhari
His experienced Tony Kart team-mates Tuukka Taponen and Coluccio Luigi were fourth and fifth, while KR Motorsport’s Brazilian Matheus Ferreira and Britain’s Kean Nakamura-Berta completed the podium. Three other Tony Kart team-mates, Joseph Turney, Lui Ruiqi and Luis Egozi, finished 13th, 16th and 26th.
Thirty-six drivers took part in dry, sunny conditions with a track temperature of just 11˚C.