It was a busy day on track at the Bahrain International Karting Circuit as heat races concluded today, setting the grids for Pre-Finals tomorrow. With a delay-free day, more than 25 heat races were run with different drivers from countries around the world battling it out on one of the world’s best karting circuits. The intensity ramps up as we enter Friday as drivers chase the elusive chance to be crowned a 2025 RMC Grand National Champion.
Let’s have a look at the race report of today:
E20 Senior / E20 Master
Heat 2
Jannik Jakobs (Germany) dominated E20 Senior Heat 2 as he rocketed to the lead and never looked back, taking the win by more than five seconds over Akos Madaras (Hungary). Madaras was just ahead of local drivers Vedant Menon and Mohammed Alhasan, with Germany bookending the top-five at the hands of Niklas Cassarino. On the E20 Master side of the program, Maurits Knopjes (UAE) continued his winning ways, beating Ecuadorian driver Jorge Matos to the checkered flag by just under half a second over the eight-lap heat race. Team Argentina put a pair of drivers inside the top-five in third and fourth, with Julian Falivene leading Gastone Di Bella, and Brazilian Adriano Amaral rounding out the top-five.
E20 Senior Rankings After Heats – Top 5
1. Jannik Jakobs
2. Levente Simon
3. Vedant Menon
4. Niklas Cassarino
5. Akos Madaras
E20 Master Rankings After Heats – Top 5
1. Maurits Knopjes
2. Julian Falivene
3. Jorge Matos
4. Gaston Di Bella
5. Michel Aboissa
Micro MAX
Heat 2
While Benjamin Karajkovic (UAE) scored the fastest race lap in Micro MAX heat two, he was only able to finish second on track, .015 behind race winner Jan Wozniak of Poland. Team Portugal’s Gustavo Oliveira slotted himself into the third position after starting second, while Maksymilian Rackowski (Poland) jumped from his P5 starting position to fourth when the checkered flag flew. Great Britain’s Albert Pharoah climbed seven positions to finish fifth.
Micro MAX Rankings After Heats – Top 5
1. Benjamin Karajkovic
2. Jan Wozniak
3. Gustavo Oliveira
4. Charlie Page
5. Dhian Singh Pahal
Mini MAX
Heat 1 – A + B
Great Britain had their way with the rest of the Mini MAX drivers in Heat 1 A + B, sweeping the top-four positions and putting five drivers inside the top-seven. Emerson Macandrew-Uren scored the heat race victory ahead of Alfie Mair and Riley Murro, with Murro scoring the fastest lap of the heat. Tom Read was able to hold his own, claiming the fourth position ahead of Japanese driver Kaito Lloyd.
Heat 1 – C + D
Heat C + D for the Mini MAX field saw three more drivers from Great Britain at the top of the results sheets, with Lucien Smith leading the way. The Cookie Monster Joshua Cooke finished just over two tenths in arrears of Smith, but ahead of fellow countryman Ryan White, who earned the fastest lap of the heat. Julian Duemmer (Germany) and Giovanni Pistore (Italy) battled it out for the fourth position, with Duemmer getting the upper hand.
Heat 2 – A + C
Riley Murro (Great Britain) was the winner of Mini MAX Heat A + C as he was able to beat Oliver Spencer (UAE) to the line by .092 to earn the win. Alfie Mair (Great Britain) was .101 in arrears of Murro in third, while Japanese driver Kaito Lloyd finished fourth. Turning the fastest lap of the race and crossing the line in the fifth position was Isaac Yoon from Korea.
Heat 2 – B + D
Emerson Macandrew-Uren went on to score his second heat race win in the B + D heat as he led a Great Britain quartet at the top of the results sheets. Behind Macandrew-Uren were Austin Oman, Lucien Smith, and Alfie Ward, who gained six positions, as all four drivers’ lap times were within the same tenth of a second. Messing up the British party was Portugal’s driver, Vicente Capela, as Ryan White (Great Britain) put five British drivers in the top-six. Following the race, Smith was handed a penalty and pushed to seventh in the results, elevating White to P5.
Heat 3 – A + D
Alfie Mair advanced from his fifth-place starting position to take the win in Mini MAX Head A + D as he beat UAE’s Oliver Spencer to the line by 2.148. It was British drivers who occupied the second through sixth positions, and all were separated by only eight tenths of a second as Lucien Smith led Riley Murro, Ryan White, and Alfie Ward.
Heat 3 – B + C
With his third heat race win, Emerson Macandrew-Uren solidified his quest to be the driver to beat in Mini MAX. Taking the top spot in the B + C heat, Emerson Macandrew-Uren was not the fastest driver on the track but earned the victory by 2.441 seconds over Italian Giovanni Pistore. Fellow Brit Tom Read was back in third while Hugo Fuentes gained 11 positions throughout the heat to finish fourth as Austin Oman (Great Britain) rounded out the top-five.
Mini MAX Rankings After Heats – Top 5
1. Emerson Macandrew-Uren
2. Alfie Mair
3. Lucien Smith
4. Oliver Spencer
5. Ryan White
Junior MAX
Heat 2 – A + C
Jacob Ashcroft (Great Britain) bested Thomas Hart (New Zealand) to take top honors in the eight-lap A + C Junior MAX heat race. Leni Robillot Lagache (France) climbed 12 positions from where he started to cross the finish line third, just .616 behind the winner Ashcroft, with Amaru Adrianzen (Peru) in the fourth position. Kevin Pollak (Austria) was fifth. Robillot Lagache was dropped to sixth after the heat due to a push-back bumper penalty, bringing Rory Armstrong (Great Britain) into the top-five in fifth.
Heat 2 – B + D
Team Canada picked up the Junior MAX B + D heat race win at the hands of Rayan Ghandour. Able to break away from the battles behind him, Ghandour held off a hard-charging Zdenek Babicek (Czechia) to take the win. Vince Vanderhallen (Belgium) climbed five positions through the eight-lap heat race to cross the line P3 on track, with Team Japan’s Taigen Sakano beating Argentine Valentino Manta for the fourth position. Vanderhallen would be excluded from the results after post-race technical inspection, elevating Harry Freeman (Great Britain) into fifth.
Heat 3 – A + D
Jacob Ashcroft (Great Britain) proved that he is one of the best Junior MAX drivers in the world with his second heat race win of the day. The 2024 RMC Grand Finals champion is looking to repeat in 2025, but 71 other Junior MAX drivers are looking to take the title away. Behind Ashcroft was Team Canada’s Alexis Baillargeon, as he beat Vince Vanderhallen (Belgium) by .043 to the line for the second position. Nik Brecelj () finished fourth on track, holding off the Argentine driver Valentino Manta.
Heat 3 – B + C
A new name appeared at the top of the Junior MAX results sheets in Heat 3 B + C as Nikita Ljubimov rallied, gaining six positions to be the first across the line. Pole sitter and Team Canada driver Rayan Ghandour dropped one position to finish second ahead of Ireland’s Ben McCloughry as the top three were separated by only .147. Great Britain appeared in the top five yet again, this time at the hands of Harry Freeman in P4, with Team Japan’s Taigen Sakano fifth.
Junior MAX Rankings After Heats – Top 5
1. Jacob Ashcroft
2. Rayan Ghandour
3. Nikita Ljubimov
4. Taigen Sakano
5. Alexis Baillargeon
Senior MAX
Heat 1 – A + B
Heat A + B for the Senior MAX drivers saw Sean Butcher (Great Britain) top the charts over Team France driver, Mehdi Lassoued. Pole position winner and Team Canada driver Ayden Ingratta was able to hold on to finish third, .329 behind Butcher. Tom Strele, racing for Latvia, matched the leader’s pace and finished fourth, ahead of the French competitor Tom Langlois.
Heat 1 - C + D
Cian Geraghty (Great Britain) was the driver to beat in the Senior MAX Heat C + D as he flexed his muscles to earn the fastest lap of the heat and take the win by .414 over Lewis Goff (Great Britain), who gained eight positions in the eight-lap race. Goff was another eight-tenths of a second ahead of Ties Van Wijk (The Netherlands). Team Japan’s Tomoki Tershima was a new name in the top-five, classified fourth when the final results were made official ahead of Slovenia’s Nik Trobec in fifth. Team USA’s Oliver Hodgson and Czechia’s Tereza Babickova were inside the top-five at the checkered flag, but post-race pushback bumper penalties shuffled them down the order.
Heat 2 – A + C
Cian Geraghty (Great Britain) picked up his second heat race win of the day as he was able to break away from the battle behind him and claim the win by 2.436. Team USA’s Oliver Hodgson held on to the runner-up position after gaining four positions through the ten-lap heat, while Sean Butcher (Great Britain) crossed the stripe in third. Team France pilot Mehdi Lassoud was within three tenths of Hodgson but in the fourth position, more than two seconds ahead of Tomoki Terashima (Japan), who gained three positions from eighth to fifth. Terashima’s forward progress was halted by a post-race penalty, pushing him all the way back to P22 and bringing Joshua Graham (Great Britain) into fifth.
Heat 2 – B + D
Team Greece driver Christos Oikonomou was able to lead the hotly contested B + D heat race as the top-five drivers finished within .737 of one another. Behind Oikonomou, Harry Bartle moved forward 12 positions to finish second for Great Britain, with Slovakia’s Martin Lichner third on track. Toby Gale (Thailand) was just over half a second behind Oikonomou in fourth, and two tenths of a second ahead of Macauley Bishop (Great Britain) in fifth. A post-race penalty dropped Bishop to 14th on the results table, bringing Ties Van Wijk into the top-five.
Heat 3 – A + D
Sean Butcher threw his name into the mix of heat race winners in Bahrain as he took the Senior MAX Heat 3 A + D win over Check driver Tereza Babickova, who advanced six positions. It was a two-driver race up front as they managed to sneak away from the pack behind them to fight for the win in the late stages. Lewis Goff (Great Britain) climbed seven positions to finish third. Pole position winner Ayden Ingartta continued to hold his own inside the top five with a fourth-place drive, while Ties Van Wijk (The Netherlands) finished fifth. Tereza Babickova fell down to ninth on the results sheet after a post-race penalty, with Ingratta now third ahead of Ties Van Wijk and Ishaan Madesh.
Heat 3 – B + C
Going three-for-three in the heat races, Cian Geraghty (Great Britain) solidified himself as one of the racers to beat in Bahrain, topping the charts in Heat B + C. Mathias Kjellerup was the best of the rest in second as the top two were .139 from one another. Just over four-tenths back was the third-place finisher of Toby Gale, with Ryan Maxwell (Canada) advancing three positions to have his best result of the weekend in fourth. Team USA’s Charlie Smith followed Maxwell through the field, gaining five positions to finish fifth. With official results coming out a little later, with the top five being reorganized to see Geraghty winning Kjellerup, Ryan Maxwell, Christos Oikonomou and Oliver Hodgson (Team USA).
Senior MAX Ranking after Heats – Top 5
1. Geraghty Cian
2. Butcher Sean
3. Goff Lewis
4. Oikonomou Christos
5. Ingratta Ayden
DD2 Master MAX
Heat 1
It was a masterclass drive for Xen De Ruwe (Slovenia) in the DD2 Master MAX Heat 1 as he drove away from the field, earning his first heat race victory of the 2025 Grand Finals. Finishing 2.534 seconds ahead of his closest rival, De Ruwe made a statement. Team France’s Nicolas Picot held off Dmitrii Kofanov (Kyrgyzstan) and Brazil’s Rubens Barrichello for second place, with Kofanov and Barrichello finishing third and fourth, respectively. Lithuania’s Martynas Tankevicius finished 3.148 seconds behind De Ruwe in the fifth position.
Heat 2
Repeating what he did in Heat 1, Xen De Ruwe (Slovenia) topped the charts again in Heat 2 in a similar fashion. Taking the checkered flag by 2.002 over Nicolas Picot (France) and Charles Seguin (France), De Ruwe is looking to take no prisoners in his quest for RMC Grand Nationals glory. Jannik Nielsen Denmark) earned the fastest lap of the race on the way to a fourth-place result after starting 12th, while former Formula One driver Rubens Barrichello (Brazil) was fifth. Seguin was issued a penalty, advancing everyone behind him as he dropped to 13th. Barrichello was eventually classified fourth with Dmitrii Kofanov (Kyrgyzstan) fifth.
DD2 Master MAX Rankings After Heats – Top 5
1. Xen De Ruwe
2. Nicolas Picot
3. Dmitrii Kofanov
4. Rubens Barrichello
5. Jannik Nielsen
DD2 MAX
Heat 1 – A + B
Antonie Barbaroux (France) scored maximum points in his first DD2 MAX heat as he took the checkered flag in the A + B on-track action, earning the win. Dawid Maslakiewicz (Poland) was the best of the rest, finishing .289 seconds behind Barbaroux, with Lawrence Herbots (Belgium) third, and earning the fastest lap of the race honors. With the top-five finishing within one second of the leader, Harrison Hoey (Australia) and Rasmus Vendelbo (Denmark) rounded out the top-five.
Heat 1 – C + D
It was four different countries in the top-five of DD2 MAX Heat C + D, with Jakub Bezel (Czechia) leading the way ahead of Bendeguz Szabo (Hungary). Team Netherlands occupied the third and fifth positions on the results sheet courtesy of Sem Knopjes and Mike Van De Pavert as they sandwiched the fourth-place finisher, Team USA’s Pauly Massimino.
Heat 2 – A + C
Dawid Maslakiewicz (Poland) picked up his first heat race win in Bahrain after being fast all week long. Starting from the pole position and winning Heat 2 A + C, Maslakiewicz was just under half a second ahead of second-place finisher Bendeguz Szabo (Hungary). Jakub Bezel (Czechia) added another top-five result to his race record in Bahrain, finishing third with Lawrence Herbots (Belgium) nearly matching his third-place result in Heat 1, with a fourth-place finish in Heat 2. Harrison Hoey continued to keep his name in the mix as he rounded out the top five. Herbots dropped down the order after a post-race penalty, bringing Pauly Massimino (Team USA) into the top five.
Heat 2 – B + D
Antonie Barbaroux (France) repeated his Heat 1 victory performance with another win in Heat 2, asserting himself as one of the drivers to beat in DD2 MAX. With one of the fastest laps in Heat 2, Barbaroux beat Rasmus Vendelbo (Denmark) to the line by 1.768. Lithuania’s Maxim Shchurko pushed Vendelbo until the very end but came up short to finish third, with the Dutch duo of Sem Knopjes and Mika Van De Pavert finishing fourth and fifth, respectively. Shchurko was not classified in the top five when the official results were posted due to an on-track penalty bringing Matthew Taskinen (Team Canada) into the top five.
Heat 3 – A + D
Sem Knopjes (The Netherlands) scored the Heat 3 A + D victory as he and Dawid Maslakiewicz (Poland) battled hard up front. With Maslakiewicz leading much of the race, it was Knopjes who was the first to the line after a move on the final lap. More than two seconds behind them, Maxim Shchurko (Lithuanian) narrowly edged Team Finland’s Axel Saarniala while Mika Van De Pavert made it a Dutch one-five finish but was dropped down the order after a penalty, bringing Lawrence Herbots into the fifth position.
Heat 3 – B + C
The final heat on a jam-packed day of racing was DD2 MAX Heat 3 B + C, and it was held on the track just after 18:00 local time in Bahrain. It was worth the wait for Jakub Bezel (Czechia), as he went on to score another DD2 MAX heat race win. Rasmus Vendelbo (Denmark) was .287 behind Bezel to finish in the runner-up position, with Ivan Parshin (Kyrgyzstan) third. British driver Edward Matthews was just outside the top three after having a stellar drive and gaining eleven positions to finish fourth, with Leo Gubser (Switzerland) in the fifth position.
DD2 MAX Rankings After Heats – Top 5
1. Coming soon
Tomorrow will see warm-up take place in the morning, followed by the Drivers Parade and the Pre-Finals for all classes. Livestream starts tomorrow at 14:40 local time (GMT+3)