Team Bahrain fly Kingdom’s flag high in Rotax MAX finals in Portugal

TDT | Manama                    

The Daily Tribune – www.newsofbahrain.com  

Team Bahrain flew Bahrain’s flag high in this year’s Rotax MAX Challenge (RMC) Grand Finals, held in Portimao, Portugal over the weekend, which gathered together hundreds of the world’s best karting drivers.

Headlining an action-packed day of Final races for Team Bahrain were Muhammad Wally and Yousif AlGaith. Wally finished seventh out of 72 drivers in the Junior MAX category and Yousif AlGaith came 29th overall out of the 36 drivers in the Micro MAX class.

Wally showed all week he is amongst the top 10 drivers in his highly competitive division where less than a second separated the top 20 drivers. Starting ninth on the grid, he was in the thick of things throughout the Final, making up two places to finish seventh best in the world.

Claiming the Junior MAX World Champion crown was Great Britain’s Marsh Scott, who was followed home by countryman Hall Ethan, with Kasper Schormans finishing third for The Netherlands. In the Micro MAX class, AlGaith gave a good account of himself, gaining valuable experience on his way to 29th place out of the 36 finalists.

Portugal’s Martin Marques did the host nation proud with his victory, followed by Majus Mazinas from Lithuania in second and Great Britain’s Albert Freind in third, rounding out the podium finishers. Amongst the other Team Bahrain drivers in action this past week, who did not make it into the Grand Finals on Saturday, Khaled Najjar was 68th out of 72 drivers in the Mini MAX category, Najashi Rashdan was 45th out of 72 drivers in the Senior MAX, and Sulaiman AlKandari came 70th out of 72 drivers in the DD2 class.

BIC Commercial Karting and Team Bahrain manager Hasan Shehabi commented: “Congratulations to Muhammad Wally for his seventh place, making up two positions from ninth to score the best result of the event for our Team. We are proud of what he achieved and the high level he performed throughout the week.

“The ‘baby’ in our team, Yousif, showed big heart all week, learning the hard way how competitive Rotax MAX at the top level is. The experience will only serve him well in the future. Being within the top 30 young drivers in the world is a fine achievement. We are proud of him.”