Laval
Held this weekend in summer weather, the Laval meeting marked the turning point of the 2013 French Minime, Cadet, and KF-Junior Championships. The circuit of Beausoleil, which is now associated to the name of Louis Paillard, the legendary founder of the Laval club, perfectly fulfilled its role of justice of the peace. In Minime, Pourchaire has now a comfortable lead over his competitors, while Simmenauer and Renaudin are among the biggest favourites to win the Cadet title. Benjamin Lessennes has taken the lead again among the Juniors, a class that is still very open when there is only one last round to go.
For the second time this year, Théo Pourchaire put up a series of faultless performances at Laval this weekend. The Zanardi-Parilla driver, who is the youngest member of the 10-15 FFSA programme, was unbeatable as usual among 10-13 year olds. Poleman in timed qualifying and leader in the qualifying heats, he also won the pre-final and final; now his score in the Championship provisional standings is so solid that he has the title almost in his pocket before next round, which will be held in the Vosges region at the end of July. Charles Milesi (ART GP-Parilla), who was not very lucky at Angerville, showed this time much greater potential and was Pourchaire's strongest opponent. He was relegated to 9th place in the pre-final, but then he monopolised second places throughout the meeting, very often by outperforming talented drivers such as Yann Bouvier (Zanardi-Parilla), Lilian Lebellier (ART GP-Parilla), Geoffrey Baudot (OTK-Parilla), and Mattéo Fouquet (OTK-Parilla). But it was Milane Petelet (OTK-Parilla), 7th in both the pre-final and the final, who took second place in the provisional standings ahead of Fouquet, while Timothy Peisselon was 4th and Hugo Szymanski 5th.
In the Cadet class, the "hero" of Mayenne was perhaps Julien Sanson (Zanardi-Rotax) with his pole position in timed qualifying, his heat victories and his first place in the pre-final. But it was Tom Lledo (Zanardi-Rotax) who stole the show in the final race, while Adrien Renaudin (Sodi-Rotax) moved up to second place and Ambininstoa Ramiandrisoa (Zanardi-Rotax) climbed onto the third step of the podium and confirmed his progression among the best drivers. With 335 and 327 points respectively, Simmenauer and Renaudin will fight for their final ranking at Mirecourt in less than three weeks' time, while the battle for the Championship podium could concern as many as 7 drivers whose scores are pretty close.
A few absences changed the face of the KF-Junior Championship. Jérémy Demarque, who was leader of the classification before Laval, could not compete due to a serious foot injury, Gabriel Aubry was in Italy for the European Championship and Arthur Lehouck was not at the meeting for a change of programme decided by his team. But the Belgian Benjamin Lessennes' (Kosmic-Parilla) total success this weekend is not really due to the absence of strong opponents. Amaury Bonduel (ART GP-Parilla) and Jules Bollier (Kosmic-Parilla) were determined to give him a hard time, but Lessennes won it all, from timed qualifying to the final race, not to mention the superpole and the pre-final. Bonduel succeeded in taking some excellent second places in the final phases and managed to remain close enough to the new leader, Lessennes of course, to have the chance to challenge his leadership at the last meeting of the year, to be held at Lyon in October. Bollier is third in the Championship, just ahead of Tom Leuillet (Birel-TM) and Maxime Potty (Kosmic-Parilla), who did pretty well and is now back in the fight.
