IRON MAN SERIES · Finale Race⏱ 1h24

The 83-minute endurance final at Lignano Circuit FPV in Precenicco took place on 12 July 2026 on the 950-metre short layout, with nine karts on the grid. It delivered a tight and tactical contest at the front, decided by a margin of just 0.150 seconds after 86 laps.

GRASSOTTO MATTEO (kart 9) took the victory by the narrowest of margins, crossing the line 0.150 seconds ahead of ROCCO ANDREA (kart 1). COSANI MATTIA (kart 5) completed the podium 7.637 seconds further back, also on 86 laps. BELLO' KRISTIAN (kart 2) came home fourth, 9.564 seconds off the lead — likewise on 86 laps. All four leaders completed the same lap count and made four pit stops apiece, underlining a shared strategic framework at the front of the field. MARROCCO ALBERTO (kart 8) rounded out the top five, 41.9 seconds adrift on 86 laps. Behind him, BOTTEON MICHELE (kart 3) finished sixth one lap down, ONGARO FRANCESCO (kart 4) and CANDUSSO FILIPPO (kart 7) shared seventh and eighth two laps down, while FETISHEV OLEG (kart 6) classified ninth four laps in arrears.

The fastest lap of the race was set by ROCCO ANDREA in a time of 51.566 seconds.

The performance analysis reveals a more nuanced picture beneath the final standings. ROCCO ANDREA produced the best pure pace of the entire field with a median race rhythm of 52.026 s — yet had to settle for second place. His consistency was also strong (standard deviation 0.62 s), and four of his five stints were rated stable; only his fourth stint showed a slight slowdown of 0.17 s per lap, before he recovered fully in the final stint (51.928 s median).

GRASSOTTO MATTEO, the winner, ranked only third in pure pace with a median of 52.103 s, yet converted that into victory — a clear sign that pit-stop execution and overall race management made the difference. His five stints were all rated stable with a consistency of 0.67 s, and his pace held remarkably steady from start to finish.

Perhaps the most striking contrast is offered by BELLO' KRISTIAN: the second-best median rhythm across the field (52.099 s), yet only fourth on the road. His fourth stint was the most degraded of any top-four finisher, losing 0.20 s per lap — the steepest decline of the race — before stabilising in his final stint. That loss of rhythm at a key moment in the race appears to have cost him dearly in the fight for the podium.

COSANI MATTIA also experienced a slippage of 0.19 s per lap in his fourth stint before steadying, while MARROCCO ALBERTO showed a similar trend (0.17 s/lap) in his fourth outing. In all three cases, the fifth stint returned to a more controlled pace.

At the other end of the spectrum, FETISHEV OLEG posted the best consistency of the race (standard deviation 0.55 s across all stints), despite finishing ninth — a reminder that regularity alone does not compensate for an overall pace deficit of roughly two seconds per lap compared to the leaders.

Key takeaways for teams: On this 950-metre circuit, the gap between pure pace and race result was decided in the pit lane and in the management of the fourth stint. Teams that kept their rhythm stable through that penultimate stint — particularly GRASSOTTO — were rewarded on the final classification. Teams with strong raw pace (ROCCO, BELLO') left marginal time on the table through brief pace drops. Pit-stop execution, with all nine teams making exactly four stops, was a shared constant; the tiebreaker lay in stint-by-stint rhythm management.