The Mondokart.com - FIA Karting World Championship - OK & Junior got underway late on Friday morning with Qualifying Practice. The large number of participants, 105 in OK and 119 in OK-Junior, meant that five heats were needed for each category. The two British polemen Joe Turney and Noah Baglin set very fast times and distanced themselves clearly from their rivals. The competition was tighter between the other drivers. Harrison Whitticombe later took pole position for the FIA Karting World Cup - OK-N. 

The Mondokart.com FIA Karting European Championship has crowned Britain's Joe Turney in OK and Belgium's Dries Van Langendonck in Junior with their performances in Sweden confirming their talent. Belgium's Gilles Herman won the FIA Karting Academy Trophy with an excellent display of maturity, while Switzerland's Dan Allemann came back brilliantly to secure 2nd place.

The weather has changed considerably since Friday at Orechová Potôň where the heat has given way to changeable conditions that have evolved during the day from rain to sunshine in temperatures of between 20 and 26° at the Slovakia Karting Center. Matheus Morgatto (BRA) took the lead in OK, Niklas Schaufler (AUT) and Dries Van Langendonck (BEL) finished level on points in OK-Junior and Gilles Herman (BEL) was the best performer in the Academy Trophy.

And once again, another Rotax MAX Challenge Grand Finals comes to a close here, amidst the sands of the Persian Gulf in 2023, with the intense competition front and centre, with the drivers that had made it to Finals Day being the stars of the show and treating everyone to great racing.

What a sight to see at the Bahrain International Karting Circuit, as warm sunshine and blue skies from up above provided welcoming and fantastic weather for what would be a great day of celebration and action-packed racing under the floodlights for the Pre-Finals.