Carlos and Max lose out at CEPSA karting event

Published on 24 January 2015 by Mike Motilall

Last Thursday the CEPSA karting event was held in Madrid. The event, that has become tradition by now, saw the athletes that are sponsored by the Spanish oil company race against each other. The professional drivers were teamed up with journalists. Max Verstappen and Carlos Sainz, both being  Scuderia Toro Rosso Formula 1 drivers, took on the teams of Antonio Albacete from the FIA European Truck Racing Championship and Maikel Melero and Dany Torres from the Freestyle Motorcross.

On the track of a sunny but cold Angel Burgueño, the third “Gran Premio Karting CEPSA” was won by the team of Dany Torres. Runner up was Carlos Sainz, who, in fact, beat his Toro Rosso teammate. Nevertheless, there was still an honourable mention for Max. During qualifying, earlier that day, the Dutchman seized pole position for him and his team.

During the one hour endurance race Max took the lead but his kart broke down just before finishing. An engine failure not only took away an eight seconds lead, but also saw a chance to win, go up in flames. Despite that, Max fought his way back from a sixth position to third.

In the final standings of the teams, which consisted of six persons each, “team Verstappen” ended up fourth, due to the combined results of the three karts the team was running.

The fastest race lap was noted down by Max, who showed the Spaniards why he became a double European and the 2013 kart world champion.

“He’s a beast”, was the comment given at the end by the Autosport-reporter who shared the kart with Max.

Below a video with a few highlights of the CEPSA karting event: