Practice Complete: Team Canada Sets the Stage for Qualifying

Drivers continued refining their kart setups on Tuesday, taking advantage of the late-afternoon start to build valuable experience under the lights at the Bahrain International Karting Circuit. With cooler track temperatures expected for Wednesday evening’s Qualifying and Heat 1, the conditions provided an important preview of what’s to come.

In the Rotax Senior category, the gap between FP3 and FP4 proved particularly busy for Canadian Ryan Maxwell. A visit to the Rotax technical workshop uncovered some persistent electrical gremlins, and after consulting with his mechanic for the week, Marco Signoretti, the team elected to replace an electrical component. The change paid off immediately, giving Maxwell a noticeably stronger run in his next session. His challenges weren’t entirely over though, he also had to swap out a valve stem on one of his front wheels before returning to the track.

Meanwhile, his Canadian teammates delivered solid pace in FP5. Olivier Mrak set the benchmark with the quickest lap of the session, while Ayden Ingratta backed it up with the fifth-fastest time, giving the group strong momentum heading into qualifying day.

For the Junior contingent, FP4 marked a standout session for the even-numbered group. Jeremy St. Cyr topped the charts for Team Canada, with teammates Rayan Ghandour and Alexis Baillargeon joining him inside the top five to complete an impressive trio. The speed continued in FP5, where Leonardo Serravalle improved throughout the day to finish second quickest in the group. In the odd-numbered group, lone Canadian representative Cole Medeiros also displayed an encouraging pace across Tuesday’s runs.

The DD2 drivers added to Team Canada’s positive day, with Gianluca Savaglio, Matthew Taskinen, and Lucas Pernod all registering competitive times in the even group. Their pace positions all three as legitimate contenders in Wednesday’s qualifying session.

Among the youngest categories, Micro and Mini, Jayden Francesco led the Canadian effort with a top-ten performance in FP4. In the Mini Max even group, Christian Sanguinetti showed strong consistency by ranking inside the top ten in both timed sessions, including a P5 result in FP5.

Tuesday also marked the final day of practice for all categories, and the final full day for the Rotax E10 Demo program, which ran alongside Mini Max to highlight the performance of Rotax’s electric platform. Canada’s Francesco Cosco was one of two invited drivers selected to take part in the showcase. After climbing out of the kart, he shared his initial impressions, noting that the E10 felt comparable in pace to the Mini Max package he races at home. He was particularly impressed by the smooth power delivery and the helpful boost system, which provided enough top-end speed to close gaps to the Mini Max field. The increased weight of the E10 made the driving feel more demanding, he added, but the experience was both positive and eye-opening.

Francesco Cosco has been quietly practicing with the Mini Max division aboard the Rotax E10 electric kart – Photo by: Cody Schindel / CKN

Looking ahead, Wednesday shapes up to be the busiest and most important day of the week. Teams will squeeze in one warm up session in the morning before shifting focus to afternoon Qualifying as the sun sets and the first round of heats under the lights.

Stay tuned to CKN for full coverage of all the action as Team Canada begins its push into race mode.