But when the hour was up, it was the pairing of Nelson Piquet Jr and Clivio Piccione who crossed the line first followed by the kart shared by Nicolas Lapierre and Ernesto Viso, with the team of Jose Maria Lopez and Ferdinando Monfardini in third.

A great evening was had by all... apart from maybe the karts themselves, who looked more than a little bruised after an hour of some of what was probably the hardest racing they'd seen in quite a while.

further images of the karting challenge are available for copyright-free download from our media zone...