Jamaica’s karting sensation Alex Powell exhibited a big mixed bag of emotions after again demonstrating his class to secure another win in the final round of the FIA Karting European Championships, but just missed out on being crowned overall European champion.

Powell entered Sunday’s final round of the four-round championship on 53 points, 26 behind the Great Britain pair of Joseph Turney (79 points) and Kean Nakamura-Berta (70 points), knowing only a win would be good enough in the battle for the coveted title of European champion.

However, for him to secure that historic feat, the American-born Powell would also need the Great Britain duo to finish third or lower in the 24-lap trophy event in Franciacort, Italy.

Though he started the final in ninth position, Powell, went to the front on the second lap and was well on his way to winning the overall championship.

But with two laps to go Frenchman Evan Giltaire, who was second for most of the way, pulled off the track and allowed Nakamura-Berta to take second position and, with it, the overall championship, denying Powell by two points.

Powell’s victory saw him scoring 80 points to Nakamura-Berta’s 82, with Turney, who finished down the track, placing third overall on 79 points.

“I knew I had to win because second wasn’t going to be good enough, but because I knew I had nothing to lose, I felt no pressure. I did what I had to do but when I looked back on the last lap, I saw Nakamura-Berta in second, so that was disappointing for me because we worked so hard for this and while second overall isn’t bad, it’s not where we wanted to be,” Powell told the Jamaica Observer shortly after the race.

Despite a lengthy investigation into how Nakamura-Berta came by second position, Powell later had to settle for second position overall.

This as the Jamaican sensation, as well as Nakamura-Berta and Giltaire all represent Kart Republic Motorsport and the decision was taken to have the team finish one-two in the championship.

While that victory, his second of the four-round championship, also saw him becoming the first Jamaican or Caribbean driver to register a top-three finish in the battle for overall championship honours, Powell believes it was a tough loss to take.

“I was disappointed when I crossed the line because it was a solid race from my side and this is something I wanted to win for some time now, but unfortunately things didn’t go my way on this one,” he said.

“What happened behind me is outside of my control. I knew what I had to do, which is win the race. I ended up doing what I had to do but again unfortunately I had no control over what happened behind me. The only thing I can say is that I was very close but it wasn’t enough,” Powell added as he came to terms with the results.

The 14-year-old, who only started driving in the more competitive senior category seven months ago, took heart from the improvements made on the day and throughout the season in general.

“I think it’s important to recognise the results that we had in this championship because round one was really bad, so to come back from that and secure a third and two wins is a very good achievement.

“It is unfortunate to lose the championship by such a small margin, but it shows the improvements that we have made and that we are more than capable of winning big events,” Powell, the cousin of former 100m world record-holder Asafa Powell, noted.

That next big event for the Mercedes-AMG F1 protege is the more prestigious FIA Karting World Championships scheduled for September in Sarno, Italy, and he is determined to push the limits to again rewrite the history books.

“Hopefully we can continue this streak and win the World Championships, which is a one-off race. So we just need to get it right on that day and we will be world champion.

“We have gone through so much over the past few months so if we were able to pull of the World Championships win, it would be a big feat and I know we are very capable of winning,” Powell noted.

That said, the young driver expressed gratitude to the Jamaican Karting Federation and others for their continued support.

“I am very happy and proud of the work that we have done and I am happy to be able to represent Jamaica at the top and that will always be the major positive for me,” he said.

“Thank you again for your endless support, I really appreciate it. I am sorry I wasn’t able to win the European Championship but I am very happy with how I have progressed so far and I’ll keep on pushing hard and doing my best to keep the country’s flag flying,” Powell said.