Young Emirati karter Keanu Al-Azhari made the final after several impressive qualifying heat results and finished 27th of 36 in Sunday’s OK Senior race at Franciacorta in Italy.
The Tony Kart Racing rookie joined team-mates Ruiqi Lui, Luigi Coluccio, James Egozi, Tuukka Taponen, Juho Valtonen, Joseph Turney, Jakub Rasjki and Oscar Wurz for the final round of the Champions of the Future Euro 2022 Series.
Against some of the world’s fastest young drivers and several future Formula One hopefuls, Al-Azhari gained four places in the final to round off another successful weekend in his first OK Senior season.
Latvia’s Tomas Stolcermanis won the final from Italy’s Maksim Orlov and Jamaica’s Alex Powell, while Turney took the championship from Tony Kart team-mate Coluccio.
What a great weekend this has been as preparation for the FIA European Championship on July 7th-10th. Initially, I needed some sessions to get back up to speed as I’ve been out of the kart over a month due to school exams in Dubai. So, I qualified a low P48. Then I really enjoyed the races in the official Tony Kart race team to climb to P27. I’m really looking forward to racing here in two weeks.
Keanu Al-Azhari
Weekend review
Confident after Friday morning’s qualifying practice, Al-Azhari finished a fine sixth of 19 in heat E/F, won by team-mate Coluccio. Technical problems and a five-second penalty spoiled a good run in his second heat, won by Turney in another Tony Kart.
After Saturday morning warm-up he was eighth in his third heat, won by team-mate Tuukka Taponen, then 11th in his fourth heat and seventh of 19 in his fifth, ahead of two team-mates.
With all heats combined on points, Al-Azhari was 27th of 59 (49pts), with Turney leading from Freddie Slater, Taponen and Coluccio.
In Sunday’s Super Heat warm-up Alex Powell was fastest and Al-Azhari 19th of 30. Stolcermanis won Super Heat 1 from Turney and Taponen, with Al-Azhari 21st, and Kean Nakamura-Berta won Super Heat 2.
With the Super Heats combined, Turney led from Slater and Taponen, and Al-Azhari’s 31st of 59 was enough to reach the 36-kart final.