Freddie’s first visit to Italy was at the popular Laghi 7 circuit in Castelletto. With an established lead in the championship after his domination in Belgium, Freddie had his sights firmly set on extending his points tally.
The team travelled to test the weekend before where it rained, and then rained some more! So, with a good wet set up, it was key to learn the track in the dry during the pre-race testing. Starting off against the local drivers proved difficult but both Freddie and his team managed to close the gap to the front.
A messy qualifying meant Freddie would start 8th in all heat races. Breath-taking starts from the 10-year-old put Freddie straight into the top 3. Heat 1 and Freddie only missed the win by 0.003 seconds with what looked like a dead heat. Heat 2 and Freddie progressed 6 places to second. The highlight race of the week was Heat 3. Freddie demonstrated his forward thinking and skilful defensive driving that his Italian opponents couldn’t deal with. Taking the win Freddie qualified 4th for the Prefinal.
The prefinal took place on Sunday with 12 laps and with mixed conditions! The race was stopped due to the down pour and enabled a wet tyre change for all. Freddie took no time to push to get into 2nd place, but as his tyres fell away couldn’t progress anymore but grabbed strong points for his championship collection. The final was dry and starting on the outside front row meant Freddie was always on the back foot at the start. Not being able to get in initially was difficult, but although he fell places managed to get back up into 2ndafter some strong overtaking moves. Losing out on a last lap battle meant Freddie crossed the line in 4th place. Still managing to beat the right championship competitors to open his championship lead.
Freddie’s upcoming travels will take him to Germany for the next race at the end of July for Round 3 of the Euro Series.