Karting Slalom kicked off on Thursday with testing, qualifying sessions, and the opening races, with Team Hungary and Team Germany among those enjoying a stellar first day of action.
The category – part of the Electric Street discipline alongside Auto Slalom – offers an accessible and affordable entry point to motorsport for junior participants aged 14-16 years who hold a National Karting licence.
With participants driving identical electric karts through a parallel slalom course in a relay format, the fastest teams progress through to a knock-out phase of head-to-head time trials, culminating in the Final to determine the gold medal winners.
When the dust settled on the opening day of the Karting Slalom competition Team Hungary’s Balázs Sturcz and Anna Benedek set the pace in qualifying. Their combined time, with penalties taken into account, was a little over three seconds clear of Germany (Louis Stange / Maja Braun), with Lithuania (Linas Volungevi / Meda Mickeliūna) slotting into third.
The top 16 from today’s sessions will progress to the next phase on Saturday morning. This will be whittled down to eight for the afternoon’s Quarter-Final, followed by Semi-Finals and the medal-deciding contests on Sunday.
Germany is the defending gold medallist, having triumphed over Belgium at the 2022 edition.