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Spaniard Pedro Hiltbrand of CRG and Frenchman Victor Martins of VDK Racing were crowned the undisputed world champions of karting after a thrilling weekend of action at the Bahrain Motorsport Festival.
Hiltbrand clinched the title in the CIKFIA World Championship, while Martins was the winner in the CIK-FIA World Junior Championship. Both earned their titles after winning the final race of their respective categories, each of which featured 34 karters.
The championship is the most elite in the karting world, with many future F1 prospects competing in order to be noticed by the higher formulas. Hiltbrand was on the winning end of a heated battle with last year’s champion Karol Basz in the 22-lap sprint.
Starting from second on the grid he got off to a fantastic start and immediately snatched away the lead. He held on until the chequered flag and won ahead of Basz by just 1.365s. After starting in second, Martins took the lead on lap eight and never looked back.
The Frenchman gradually extended the gap from his closest challenger, David Vidales Ajenjo, from 0.6 seconds to the 2.312 seconds he won with at the chequered flag, after 18 hotly-contested laps.
