Last week-end, on March 29–30, the 25th Andrea Margutti Trophy in memory of the young karting driver was held in Lonato (Italy). This competition traditionally attracts a lot of participants from all over the world. Five pilots in the KF Junior class took part in the race under the Russian flag with two of them supported by the SMP Racing programme — Alexander Vartanian and Matvey Maslov.
Alexander Vartanian was fast throughout the entire week-end. He was just 0.2 seconds behind the British driver Maximilian Fewtrell in the qualifying and was tenth overall. Matvey Maslov had a 1.5 sec bigger gap from the leader thus taking the 15th position. After three qualifying runs Matvey was 18th on the starting grid — he was among top ten drivers in first two runs, however, he could not avoid a pileup in the third run, rolled back to the end of the peloton and was 20th to cross the finish line.
Alexander Vartanian scored one victory in three heats, had one fast lap and took second and fifth places. Noteworthy is the fact that only four pilots were able to secure victories in six heats — Maximilian Fewtrell (Great Britain), Maurizio Baiz (Hungary), Lorenzo Travisanutto (Italy) and Alexander Vartanian (Russia). In this order the pilots qualified for the semi-final race. Alexander Vartanian had to start from a rather inconvenient fourth position on the outer edge of the track but was able to avoid the pileup right after the start and stayed in the race. Due to high speed and strong determination to succeed he was able to withstand all attacks performed by his competitors, climb up to the third position and cross the finish line just one second behind the winner Maximilian Fewtrell.
Matvey Maslov kept the 18th starting position till the finish line of the semi-final race though he managed to make a number of overtakes. However, Maslov was not able to get out of the thick struggle in the middle of the peloton. Matvey managed to change the situation in the final race which he started by overtaking four competitors in the first lap. And then lap after lap he was breaking through higher and higher and was eighth in the middle of the race. The final ten laps Matvey spent struggling with Logan Sargeant and Roskas Baciuska and he managed to defend the eighth position.
Alexander Vartanian won the silver trophy of this tournament in a challenging struggle. Two more pilots were claiming the title together with the mentioned above Fewtrell and Travisanutto — Leonardo Lorandi and Martin Ross. All 20 laps these drivers competed for the desired podium places constantly exchanging positions in the course of the race. Alexander Vartanian was able to become second on the third lap of the race chasing Maximilian and defending the attacks of other competitors. Several times Lorandi was close to overtaking the Russian pilot but Alexander was always fast enough to block any overtaking possibilities without letting Fewtrell go too far ahead. Alexander Vartanian was less than four tenth of a second away from winning the race. Nevertheless, it was a great honour to walk away with the silver trophy awarded for such a bright competition. Let us remind that it was the first podium of the Russian pilot in the KF Junior class.
