Britons Keirle, Patterson become 2017 karting world champions

Keirle joined Chiesa Corse for the event and dominated the event to take the world championship title.

He first won five of his six heats - with a second-place finish in the last one - thus taking pole position for the final race.

In the 22-lap main race, he took a lights-to-flag win, even though he was never able to pull away from the rest of the field.

His German teammate Esteban Muth spent the race running in a close second, only to be given a 10s time penalty for hitting another kart, and dropping down to 10th.

That promoted Spaniard David Vidales into second. The 15-year-old, who was also second in last year's junior world championship, is looking to graduate to single-seaters in 2018.

Finnish duo Juho Valtanen and Paavo Tonteri took third and fourth respectively, the latter benefitting from a penalty assessed to Oliver Hodgson.

Rasmus Lindh gained six places to finish fifth, ahead of Brazilian Gianluca de Castro Petecof and Hannes Janker, who started from 15th.

OK class top 10

Pos.	Driver	Team	Gap
1	Danny Keirle	Chiesa Corse
2	David Vidales	Tony Kart	0.674
3	Juho Valtenen	Kohtala Sports	1.197
4	Paavo Tonteri	KSM Schumacher	5.486
5	Rasmus Lindh	Fusion Motorsport	5.792
6	Gianluca de Castro Petecof	Tony Kart	7.119
7	Hannes Janker	CRG	7.417
8	Axel Charpentier	Ricky Flynn Motorsport	7.634
9	Louie Westover	CRG	8.908
10	Esteban Muth	Chiesa Corse	10.218

The OK-Junior class was also the domain of British racers, as the whole podium was locked out by local drivers.

While newly-signed Red Bull juniors Harry Thompson and Jonny Edgar were the strongest representatives of Great Britain in the class during the regular karting season, it was Forza Racing duo Patterson and Christopher Lulham dominating in the world championship event.

Thompson started from pole but he gave up his position to Patterson at the start.

Barbadian Zane Maloney then put immense pressure on Patterson in the first five laps before dropping down the order.

Then Lulham took over in second, and he would likewise put pressure on the leader for the remainder of the race.

The duo, both driving for Forza Racing, pulled away from the rest to take first and second by nearly four seconds.

Thompson completed the podium, as he had a similarly big gap behind him.

Shihab Al Habsi from Oman was fourth from 15th on the grid, ahead of American Tyler Gonzales.

But a post-race penalty to Gonzales promoted Maloney, who recovered from his early woes, to fifth, ahead of Red Bull junior Jack Doohan and Gabriel Bortoleto, the highest-placed driver not racing for a British team.

OKJ class top 10

Pos.	Driver	Team	Gap
1	Dexter Patterson	Forza Racing
2	Christopher Lulham	Forza Racing	0.106
3	Harry Thompson	Ricky Flynn Motorsport	3.738
4	Shihab Al Habsi	Msport Karting	7.829
5	Zane Maloney	Ricky Flynn Motorsport	8.766
6	Jack Doohan	Ricky Flynn Motorsport	9.931
7	Gabriel Bortoleto	CRG	10.403
8	Luca Bosco	Baby Race	10.644
9	Victor Bernier	Cedric Sports	10.919
10	Andrea Rosso	Tony Kart	11.142