Season 7, Round 3 - Sarno (ITA)
After a great start of the season, with numbers hitting an impressive 27 people, numbers reduced to less 'alien' amounts. For Sarno 8 people were present to continue their journey to the championship title. This did not mean the racing was any less exciting though, as Sarno's layout provided some brilliant race action!
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In qualifying, it was Aaron Heathman who set the pace for the session, Leon Rullit in an impressive second place, after not having had the best start to his Season 7 campaign. Lukas Thomsen, back at the front in OKC, qualifies P3 with Alessandro Ceronetti and Rowan Gill rounding out the top 5!
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Heat 1 went the way of Heathman, as he set pace from lights to flag, with Rullit following him in P2, after an exciting battle with Gill whom challenged Rullit to the very end for P2! Ceronetti and Hiatt round out the top 5. Thomsen was the only non-finisher as he crashed in the earlier stages.
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Heat 2 was again Heathman's, as the American stormed to take pole position for the Pre-Final. Rullit was second again, but this time he was required to sweat it out more for it, as he did not have the start he was looking for, dropping back to 6th. Hiatt stormed to an impressive P3, to complete his Pre-Final starting grid journey.
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The Pre-Final, went the away of an unstoppable Heathman, who looked to have an extra gear over everyone else. Gill took a P2 he was looking for, and demoted Rullit into P3. Last season's runner-up, Ceronetti finished P4 with Bryce Stevens in P5 after a tough day at the office.
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In the Final, Ceronetti, Hiatt and Thomsen were involved in a first lap incident. Thomsen had to retire once again, after a dissapointing day from his prespective. After qualifying P3, Thomsen did not meet the chequered flag in any of the races. Hiatt was not having the best day either, as the leading rookie coming into the round, was always just outisde the top 4 in every race. His rival, Rowan Gill was having the polar opposite, challenging Heathman for the win at one point, as he found his feet in the final and taking on the reigning OKC champion. Heathman ended up taking the win, and completing a clean sweep round with Gill right behind him. Rullit finished P3, after what was an impressive performance from the German. He takes on the top 10 of the championship standings after this result, and is a possible conteder for the Top 5 Finishers. After a tough day at the office, Stevens finished in a respectable P4, and collecting more points to move him up to P4 in the championship. Championship leader coming into the round, Ceronetti had a dissapointing performance after finishing P6 behind Justin Adakonis who rounded up the top 5. Adakonis hadn't had the best day either as he was running outside the top 5 for the entire evening.
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After Heathman's clean sweep, he takes an important advantage in the standings table, as he goes to +26 points over teammate Alessandro Ceronetti in P2. Rowan Gill moves up to P3 and leads the Rookie standings, just 14 points behind Ceronetti. Stevens claims P4 and Hiatt drops back to P5. Hiatt is going to be looking for a stronger second part of the season, as he goes into Round 4, 6 points behind his rookie rival Rowan Gill. Adakonis leaps a few who did not make the round to promote himself into P6. Leon Rullit also took advantage of this as he moves himself up to P8, into seeded number positions. Looking at others, Doorgeest misses the round and moves back down to a tough position, but not all is lost for the Portugese star as he gains a significant advantage over the others in terms of drop scores.
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The standings are ready to be changed once again in Suzuka, which will be hosting the second-to-last round of an excsatic Season of OKC! Who will come out on top in Japan? Prepare to find out on Saturday 6th of June 2020!