The Formula Karting race in Kortrijk was the 7th race of the season. After I had already competed in the first three races, I was at the start again in this prestigious championship after being absent in the other races.

Kortrijk is a track where I have always felt good, so I went there with high expectations!

In the morning we had two training sessions in which I achieved two top 5 results, which for me was the confirmation of my good shape.

As usual, five heats were held, each time preceded by a hotlap qualification.

My first kart wasn’t too good, so I knew immediately that I had to limit the damage with this. All in all I was able to achieve a reasonable 10th place with this. My direct competitors did not do better with this kart.

Heat two was a lot better. I was able to qualify close behind Ruben Boutens and Mats de Jong. A sequence that we also kept until the finish. Ruben and Mats were just that little bit faster so I couldn’t go for an overtaking attempt.

The third heat was my highlight of the day. A strong hotlap was rewarded with a pole position. Opnithi Puyato qualified just behind me. He also caused the most pressure in the opening laps. However, he took his short-cut lap fairly early, which put him in traffic and lost a spot to Ricardo Vlieger, who had meanwhile closed the gap with me. I was able to defend my first place without too many problems so I won that heat!

I knew my fourth heat would be a scrape result. The kart had never been in the top 10 in the heats before, so I braced myself for a difficult race. I finally finished in 13th place. In my hotlap I made a small mistake, something that may have cost me a place or two.

At that time I was fifth in the daily classification, a podium was still possible, but then I had to finish at least second or higher in the fifth and final heat. Ruben took pole, but I managed to qualify inP2.
Ruben took his shortcut quite quickly in the race, so I decided to keep on driving to get past him. However, he managed to match my times so after my shortcut I came back behind him, although on P2. I tried a few times to overtake, but unfortunately he managed to hold his line . This second place was enough to climb to the third place in the daily classification!