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First podium of the season for Birelart in KZ2, third place for Bertuca in the WSK Super Master Series in Viterbo

Birelart finishes the third race of the 2026 season in third place in KZ2 at the WSK Super Master Series weekend in Viterbo.

KZ2 – Bertuca on the podium, Ritonen and Wolfe on top
With the season debut in Sarno now behind them, all the KZ2 drivers returned to the track to continue the first part of the new season. The weekend in Viterbo got off to a great start, with seven Birelart chassis in the top ten of the official qualifying, confirming the speed and progress made with the new materials. After the three scheduled heats and placings in the top five, the final was a battle from the first lap with Cristian Bertuca in pole position and Noah Wolfe in the second row, after starting second in the Pre-Final. Bertuca took third place under the chequered flag, fighting for the winand securing the first KZ2 podium of the season. Fourth place and best result so far for Martti Ritonen, who was always among the protagonists of the weekend. Sem Knopjes made good progress, finishing fifth and thenseventh after a penalty. Wolfe had an unfortunate end to the race, forced to retire while in third position, as did Pedro Hiltbrand, who was competingfirmly in the top five. One of the best comebacks was that of Michael Ider, who recovered twelve positions in the Prefinal.

OK Senior – Sala and Sharp take centre stage
The Viterbo round saw intense battles for the OK Senior drivers, who areincreasingly consistent at the front of the category. Aston Sharp (VAR by Birelart) took centre stage right from the start, capitalising on a good qualifyingsession and high-level heats to secure ninth position on the starting grid for the final, a position he would have improved on had it not been for a not idesl butcompetitive race. Filippo Sala (CL Racing Team) completed his comebacksession after session, called upon to deliver a solid final with seven positions improved and once again a the top ten in the category. Ivannikov and Mazzola improved, especially between the heats and pre-finals, with good race pace and improved positions.

OKJ – Work continues for Angelard and Legenkyi
A new race and a new phase of initial consolidation for Julia Angelard and Oleksandr Legenkyi, both making their debut. Over the weekend, both the Richard Mille Young Talent Academy driver and the CL Racing Team driver confirmed their good progress. Julia Angelard improved her lap times and recovered positions during the heats, and the same can be said for Legenkyi, whorecovered ten positions in a single heat, which was one of the positive notes.

Mini – Mujis on track for the podium
Third weekend out of three as protagonists for the Birelart Mini drivers, especially for Dutchman Cees Muijs. Only a penalty at the end of the session deprived Muijs of his first pole position of the season, the second for Birel chassis after Sheetov's in Sarno. Muijs continued to shine, finishing second in the first heat and consistently in the top five in the remaining heats and pre-final, ending the weekend in tenth place. David Sheetov also performed well, despitebeing forced to fight his way back during his heats, improving his position by more than ten places on several occasions.

Marino Spinozzi, Mini Class Team Manager «It was a slightly tougher weekend, especially because Muijs had secured pole position with the fastest overall time across both sessions, but unfortunately itwas taken away due to a front fairing penalty. Even starting further back, he consistently finished in the top five and kept gaining positions. In the final, a few too many contacts prevented him from fighting for the podium, but we are still satisfied. Sheetov was very fast throughout the weekend, but unfortunatelyhe couldn’t put together a good lap in qualifying and had to fight his way back. We are happy with his race pace and his attitude in the prefinal — startingfrom 18th, he finished sixth. He also achieved a good result in the final, despitesome race race contacts while starting from the middle of the pack. We are focused on the next race, knowing that we can always aim for the top positions».

Jordon Lennox, Direct Drive Team Manager «The Viterbo weekend was challenging as always. In the Senior class, expectations were high after our recent performances and also after last year on the same track. Unfortunately, we were missing something to achieve a better performance, even though the speed was there and the drivers did their maximum. The team has worked and continues to work in the right direction with the new package. From the Junior side, it was very positive to see, beyond the result, that both drivers continued their development and showed good speed. Legenkyi had good heats, recovering many positions, which was great to see. It’s a shame about the traffic in qualifying. Julia Angelard keeps improving session after session; there is still some work to do, but everything is positive».

Riccardo Longhi, KZ Team Manager «We’re wrapping up another weekend of progress. Unfortunately, we were a bit unlucky in the final due to the retirements of both Hiltbrand and Wolfe — bothof them could have achieved very strong results. Bertuca had a great race fighting for the podium; we were very close to taking the win, but in any case we were competitive. The other KZ2 drivers also performed very well, with strong results from Ritonen and Knopjes, and overall our pace was very good. We consistently had at least four or five drivers at the front throughout the week, and without a few setbacks it would have been the same in the final.We’re continuing to work on the Iame technical package and we’re graduallyimproving over time. Overall, it was another positive weekend, but we remainfocused on doing even better».

The Birelart drivers will return to competition in the fourth round of the WSK Super Master Series in Lonato, from 4 to 8 March 2026.

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