The Spanish drift championship has begun in Circuito Antonio Vadillo in Miranda de Ebro. Drifters from Spain, Italy, Portugal, France, Lithuania, France, Switzerland, and Brazil arrived in the Bask region.
Qualification
The scores have been tight, but Alex Gritti takes pole position with 92 points, followed very closely by Oleksii Holovnia (89 pts) and Raman Kandratsenka (87 pts).
Sadly, fan favourites from Lithuania, Gediminas Levickas and Sandra Janušauskaitė, suffered from the technical issues. Gediminas performed an excellent second qualifying run but spun after the finish line. A broken clutch caused this, and the Toyota GT86 driver tried not to crash into the wall and marshals. Sadly – a spun after the finish line is a zero.
Meanwhile, Sandra was fighting with the 3UZ-Fe engine on Friday and Saturday. Low oil pressure cut the engine off, and the 2024 Drift Queen could do a proper qualifying run.
Tandems
Gediminas Levickas ran strong until the wheel nuts broke, and he became a passenger in his Toyota while fighting Ruben Balanos in the Top 16.
Balanos’s luck didn’t last long. He put three wheels off the track in the chase run with Alex Gritti. During his second run, he went off the track in the last corner, damaging his rear suspension. This meant that Alex Gritti advanced to the final four but could not participate in the final battles as he heavily crashed into the wall due to a steering system problem.
After a weekend where every curve has been a challenge and every battle a true spectacle, Alex Holovnia takes victory in Round 1 of Drift Spain. Joao Vieira came second, and Igor Derenko was third.
The next stop for Drift Spain is Jarama Circuit near Madrid.
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