The pressure was on today as drivers sought to bank an early advantage during Round 2 of the Mondokart.com FIA Karting European Championship. A gloomy weather forecast for Saturday raised the stakes with drivers knowing every lap today could be crucial in setting Sunday’s final grid.

Qualifying for the opening round of the Italian F4 Championship at the Misano World Circuit has come to an end. Luka Sammalisto, the Finnish driver for US Racing, set the fastest overall time with a 1’35.492 lap, securing pole position for Race 2 and Race 3 at the head of Group A. The fastest driver in the other series was Prema Racing’s Turkish driver Alp Aksoy, who will start from pole position in Race 1 with Group B.

The 2026 season of the Italian F4 Championship, the single-seater series promoted by ACI Sport and WSK Promotion, gets underway with record-breaking numbers. After the previous record set at Monza in 2022 with 44 cars on the grid, the championship has already surpassed that mark: 47 single-seaters ready to take to the track on Thursday for the collective tests ahead of the opening round of the season at the Misano circuit on the Adriatic Riviera.

Three weeks after the season opener in Italy, the Mondokart.com FIA Karting European Championship heads to Spain this weekend as 246 OK, Junior and Academy Senior drivers will descend on the Kartodromo Internacional Lucas Guerrero in Chiva, near Valencia, with title ambitions sharpening and championship momentum shifting up a gear.

After many races in Italy since the start of the season, the teams relying on the KR brand set their sights on Spain and the Lucas Guerrero circuit in Chiva for the second round of the Champions of the Future Euro Series. On this track, which has already brought so much success to the Italian manufacturer Kart Republic in the past, a sensational overall result rewarded the outstanding level of performance of the KR-IAME karts: a one-two in OK with Noah Baglin and Niklas Schaufler, and another in OK-Junior with Will Green and Priam Bruno.