Rising British star Freddie Slater added another karting accolade to his extensive portfolio with victory in the Final of the FIA Karting European Championship – KZ2 category at a sweltering Sarno, Italy at the weekend.

The 2020 World and 2021 European Karting Champion leads this year’s Ginetta Junior Championship but is dovetailing that campaign with karting appearances, and the Sarno weekend was another successful one for the 15-year-old from Stratford-upon-Avon.

Up against 72 entrants at the Italian circuit, which sits at the foot of Mount Vesuvius and recorded temperatures as high as 36 degrees over the three days, Slater dominated the event for his GBR-Birel ART team. He topped his qualifying session on Friday, won three of his four heat races on Saturday, and won both his Super Heat and the Final – by a significant 1.7 seconds – on Sunday.

As a result, the weekend victory made him Champion of the two-round series, which kicked off at Zuera, Spain in April. In what was Slater’s first season in a gearbox kart, he had a 45-point buffer to nearest rival Daniel Vasile come the chequered flag on Sunday.

2023 is also Slater’s first full-time campaign in car racing, albeit he did win the Ginetta Junior Winter Series on his debut last November. His full championship points lead currently sits at a comfortable 123 ahead of the next round at Cadwell Park on 22/23 July.