MOSCOW, July 11. /TASS/. Russia’s Anatoly Khavalkin won the 2022 FIA European Karting Championship in junior class, which was held this year in four stages on the race circuits of Portugal, Spain, Sweden and Italy, a statement posted on the official FIA Karting website reported.
According to the final statistics, posted on the official website, the top three of the winners in the 2022 FIA European Karting Championships are: Anatoly Khavalkin (86 points), Jan Przyrowski of Poland (65 points) and Britain’s Nathan Tye (64 points).
Speaking after the final race in Italy over the past weekend, Khavalkin said he was extremely glad to be the new champion.
"I was a bit disappointed at the start of the Final when I got pushed and dropped back to seventh. At that moment Nathan Tye took the lead and I was no longer in a favourable position for the Championship," the tournament’s official website quoted him as saying after the final race in Italy.
"But so much happened in that race that the situation changed. I concentrated on passing as many drivers as possible. I gradually relaxed when I saw how things were going. I am very happy to have won the European Championship," Khavalkin added.
The FIA Karting European Championship’s inaugural race was organized in 1972 and Khavalkin is now the first Russian to win this racing tournament series. Before him, Russia’s Pavel Bulantsev took the silver in 2017 and Daniial Kvyat, a former F1 racer, grabbed the bronze of this tournament back in 2008.